LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




Glass 
Book. 



BX 



. 



J&Z5 



PROTESTANTISM 



AND 



CATHOLICITY ^ 



COMPARED IN THEIR 



EFFECTS ON THE CIVILIZATION OF EUROPE. 



WRITTEN IN SPANISH 

BY THE REV. J. BALMES 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH. 

I?um\ fitting 



BALTIMORE: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY & CO. 

No. 178 MARKET STREET. 

PITTSBURG: GEORGE Q IT I G LEY. 

Sold by Booksellers generally. 

1851. 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty, 
by John Murphy & Co.. in the. Clerk's Office of the District. Court of Maryland. 



V 



AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Among the many and important evils which have been the necessary 
result of the profound revolutions of modern times, there appears a good 
extremely valuable to science, and which will probably have a beneficial 
influence on the human race, — I mean the love of studies having for 
their object man and society. The shocks have been so rude, that the 
earth has, as it were, opened under our feet; and the human mind, 
which, full of pride and haughtiness, but lately advanced on a triumphal 
car amid acclamations and cries of victory, has been alarmed and 
stopped in its career. Absorbed by an important thought, overcome by 
a profound reflection, it has asked itself, "What am I? whence do I 
come? what is my destination?" Religious questions have regained 
their high importance; and when they might have been supposed to 
have been scattered by the breath of indifference, or almost annihilated 
by the astonishing development of material interests, by the progress of 
the natural and exact sciences, by the continually increasing ardour of 
political debates, — we have seen that, so far from having been stifled by 
the immense weight which seemed to have overwhelmed them, they have 
reappeared on a sudden in all their magnitude, in their gigantic form, 
predominant over society, and reaching from the heavens to the abyss. 

This disposition of men's minds naturally drew their attention to the 
religious revolution of the sixteenth century; it was natural that they 
should ask what this revolution had done to promote the interests of hu- 
manity. Unhappily, great mistakes have been made in this inquiry. 
Either because they have looked at the facts through the distorted me- 
dium of sectarian prejudice, or because they have only considered them 
superficially, men have arrived at the conclusion, that the reformers 
of the sixteenth century conferred a signal benefit on the nations of 
Europe, by contributing to the development of science, of the arts, of 
human liberty, and of every thing which is comprised in the word 
civilization. 

What do history and philosophy say on this subject? How has man, 
either individually or collectively, considered in a religious, social, politi- 
cal, or literary point of view, been benefited by the reform of the six- 
teenth century? Did Europe, under the exclusive influence of Catholi- 
city, pursue a prosperous career ? Did Catholicity impose a single fetter 



IV 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



on the movements of civilization? This is the examination which I 
propose to make in this work. Every age has its peculiar wants ; and 
it is much to be wished that all Catholic writers were convinced, that the 
complete examination of these questions is one of the most urgent neces- 
sities of the times in which we live. Bellarmine and Bossuet have done 
what was required for their times ; we ought to do the same for ours. 
I am fully aware of the immense extent of the questions I have adverted 
to, and I do not flatter myself that I shall be able to elucidate them as 
they deserve ; but, however this may be, I promise to enter on my task 
with the courage which is inspired by a love of truth ; and when my 
strength shall be exhausted, I shall sit down with tranquillity of mind, in 
expectation that another, more vigorous than myself, will carry into 
effect so important an enterprise. 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 

The work of Balmes on the comparative influence of Protestantism 
and Catholicity on European civilization, which is now presented to the 
American public, was written in Spanish, and won for the author among 
his own countrymen a very high reputation. A French edition was pub- 
lished simultaneously with the Spanish, and the work has since been 
translated into the Italian and English languages, and been widely cir- 
culated as one of the most learned productions of the age, and most ad- 
mirably suited to the exigencies of our times. When Protestantism could 
no longer maintain its position in the field of theology, compelling its 
votaries by its endless variations to espouse open infidelity, or to fall 
back upon the ancient church, it adopted a new mode of defence, in 
pointing to its pretended achievements as the liberator of the human 
mind, the friend of civil and religious freedom, the patron of science and 
the arts; in a word, the active element in all social ameliorations. This 
is the cherished idea and boasted argument of those who attempt to up- 
hold Protestantism as a system. They claim for it the merit of having 
freed the intellect of man from a degrading bondage, given a nobler im- 
pulse to enterprise and industry, and sown in every direction the seed 
of national and individual prosperity. Looking at facts superficially, or 
through the distorted medium of prejudice, they tell us that the reformers 
of the 16th century contributed much to the development of science and 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. V 

the arts, of human liberty, and of every thing which is comprised in the 
word civilization. To combat this delusion, so well calculated to en- 
snare the minds of men in this materialistic and utilitarian age, the 
author* undertook the work, a translation of which is here presented to the 
public. " What do history and philosophy say on this subject ? How has 
man, either individually or collectively, considered in a religious, social, 
political, or literary point of view, been benefited by the reform of the 16th 
century? Did Europe, under the exclusive influence of Catholicity, pursue 
a prosperous career? Did Catholicity impose a single fetter on the move- 
ments of civilization?" Such is the important investigation which the au- 
thor proposed to himself, and it must be admitted that he has accomplished 
his task with the most brilliant success ? Possessed of a penetrating 
mind, cultivated by profound study and adorned with the most varied 
erudition, and guided by a fearless love of truth, he traverses the whole 
Christian era, comparing the gigantic achievements of Catholicity, in 
curing the evils of mankind, elevating human nature, and diffusing light 
and happiness, with the results of which Protestantism may boast; and 
he proves, with the torch of history and philosophy in his hand, that the 
latter, far from having exerted any beneficial influence upon society, has 
retarded the great work of civilization which Catholicity commenced, and 
which was advancing so prosperously under her auspicious guidance. 
He does not say that nothing has been done for civilization by Protest- 
ants; but he asserts and proves that Protestantism has been greatly un- 
favorable, and even injurious to it. 

By thus exposing the short-comings, or rather evils of Protestantism, 
in a social and political point of view, as Bossuet and others had exhi- 
bited them under the theological aspect, Balmes has rendered a most im- 
portant service to Catholic literature. He has supplied the age with a 
work, which is peculiarly adapted to its wants, and which must command 
a general attention in the United States. The Catholic, in perusing its 
pages, will learn to admire still more the glorious character of the faith 
which he professes : the Protestant, if sincere, will open his eyes to the 
incompatibility of his principles with the happiness of mankind : while 
the scholar in general will find in it a vast amount of information, on the 
most vital and interesting topics, and presented in a style of eloquence 
seldom equalled. 

"The reader is requested to bear in mind that the author was a native 
of Spain, and therefore he must not be surprised to find much that re- 
lates more particularly to that country. In fact, the fear that Protestant- 



VI 



PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 



ism might be introduced there seems to have been the motive which in- 
duced him to undertake the work. He was evidently a man of strong 
national as well as religious feeling, and he dreaded its introduction both 
politically and religiously, as he considered that it would be injurious to 
his country in both points of view. He thought that it would destroy 
the national unity, as it certainly did in other countries. 

"A very interesting part of the work is that where he states the rela- 
tions of religion and political freedom ; shows that Catholicity is by no 
means adverse to the latter, but, on the contrary, highly favorable to it ; 
and proves by extracts from St. Thomas Aquinas and other great Catho- 
lic divines, that they entertained the most enlightened political views. 
On the other hand, he shows that Protestantism was unfavorable to civil 
liberty, as is evidenced by the fact, that arbitrary power made great pro- 
gress in various countries of Europe soon after its appearance. The 
reason of this was, that the moral control of religion being taken away, 
physical restraint became the more necessary." The author, on this sub- 
ject, naturally expresses a preference for monarchy, it being a cherished 
inheritance from his forefathers ; but, it will be noticed that the princi- 
ples which he lays down as essential to a right administration of civil 
affairs, regard the substance and not the form of government; are as ne- 
cessary under a republican as under the monarchical system ; and, if 
duly observed, they cannot fail to ensure the happiness of the people. 
This portion of the volume will be read with peculiar interest in this 
country, and ought to command an attentive consideration. 

In preparing this edition of the work from the English translation by 
Messrs. Hanford and Kershaw, care has been taken to revise the whole 
of it, to compare it with the original French, and to correct the various 
errors, particularly the mistakes in translation. A biographical notice of 
the illustrious writer has also been prefixed to the volume, to give the 
reader an insight into his eminent character, and the valuable services 
he has rendered to his country and to society at large. 

Baltimore, November 1, 1850. 



NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 



James Balmes was born at Vich, a small city in Catalonia, in Spam, 
on the 28th of August, 1810. His parents were poor, but noted for their 
industry and religion, and they took care to train him from his childhood 
to habits of rigid piety. Every morning, after the holy sacrifice of mass, 
his mother prostrate before an altar dedicated to St. Thomas of Aquin, 
implored this illustrious doctor to obtain for her son the gifts of sanctity 
and knowledge. Her prayers were not disappointed. 

From seven to ten years of age, Balmes applied himself with great 
ardor to the study of Latin. The two following years were devoted to 
a course of rhetoric, and three years more were allotted to philosophy; 
a ninth year was occupied with the prolegomena of theology. Such 
was the order of studies in the seminary of Vich. While thus laboring 
to store his mind with knowledge, Balmes preserved an irreproachable 
line of conduct. Called to the ecclesiastical state, he submitted readily 
to the strict discipline which this vocation required, and he was seen 
nowhere but under the parental roof, at the church, in some religious 
community, or in the episcopal library. At the age of fourteen he w-as 
admitted to a benefice, the revenue of which, though small, enabled him 
to complete his education. In 1S26, he went to the University of Cer- 
vera, which at that time was the centre of public instruction in that part 
of Spain. It numbered four colleges, in all of which an enlightened 
piety prevailed, affording the young Balmes a most favorable opportunity 
of developing his rare qualities. Here, the frame and habit of his mind 
were observable to all, in his deep and animated look, in his grave and 
modest demeanor, and in his method of study. He would read a few 
pages over a table, his head resting upon his hands ; then, wrapt in his 
mantle, he would spend a long time in reflection. " The true method of 
study," he used to say, " is to read little, to select good authors, and to 
think much. If we confined ourselves to a knowledge of what is con- 
tained in books, the sciences would never advance a step. We must 
learn what others have not known. During my meditations in the dark, 
my thoughts ferment, and my brain burns like a boiling cauldron." 

Devoted to the acquisition of knowledge, he cultivated retirement as a 
means of facilitating the attainment of his object. His thirst for learn- 



VIII 



NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 



ing was so intense, that it held him under absolute sway, and he found 
it necessary at a later period to offer a systematic resistance to its ex- 
clusive demands. Pursuing his favorite method of study, Ealmes re- 
mained four years at the University of Cervera, reading no other works 
than the Sum of St. Thomas, and the commentaries upon it by Bellar- 
mine, Suarez and Cajetan. If he made any exception from this rule, 
it was in favor of Chateaubriand's Genie du Christanisme. "Ev3ry 
thing," said he, " is to be found in St. Thomas ; philosophy, religion, 
politics : his writings are an inexhaustible mine." Having thus strength- 
ened, his mind by a due application to philosophical and theological stu- 
dies, he proceeded to enlarge his sphere of knowledge by reading a 
greater variety of authors. In taking up a work, he first looked at the 
table of contents, and when it suggested an idea or fact which seemed 
to open before him a new path, he read that part of the volume which 
developed this idea or fact ; the rest was overlooked. In this way, he 
accumulated a rich store of varied erudition. At the age of twenty-two 
he knew by memory the tabular contents of an extraordinary number of 
volumes ; he had learned the French language ; he spoke and wrote 
Latin better than his native tongue, and had been admitted successively 
to the degrees of bachelor and licentiate in theology. The virtues of 
his youth, far from having been weakened by these studies, had acquired 
greater strength and maturity. As he approached the solemn period of 
his ordination, he became still more remarkable for the gravity and mo- 
desty of his deportment. He prepared himself for his elevation to the 
priesthood by a retreat of one hundred days. After his promotion to the 
sacerdotal dignity, which took place in his native city, he returned to 
the University of Cervera, where he continued his studies, and performed 
the duties of assistant professor. Here also he began to manifest his 
political views ; but, always with that discretion and moderation for 
which the Spanish clergy have been with few exceptions distinguished 
during the last twenty years. At that period Spain was agitated by two 
conflicting parties, that of Maria Christina and the other of Don Carlos. 
Balmes avoided all questions which were rather calculated to encourage 
the spirit of faction than promote the general interest of the country. 
In 1835 he evinced this circumspection in a remarkable degree, when 
the doctorate which had been conferred upon him, required him to de- 
liver an address in honor of the reigning monarch. Maria Christina was 
then the queen regent, and civil war was about to commence in the 
mountains of Catalonia ; but Balmes performed his task without allusion 
to politics, and without offending the adherents of either party. 

After two years of study at Cervera, where he applied himself to 
theology and law, our author returned to Vich, where he determined to 
spend four years more in retirement, for the purpose of maturing his 
character and knowledge. In this solitude, he devoted himself to his- 



NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 



IX 



tory, poetry and politics, but principally to mathematics, of which he ob- 
tained a professorship in 1837. During all these literary labors, Balmes 
was actuated by a lively faith, and a sincere, unassuming piety. Religious 
meditation, intermingled with scientific reflections, was the constant oc- 
cupation of his mind ; he did not neglect, however, the exterior prac- 
tices of devotion. Besides the celebration of the holy sacrifice, he fre- 
quently visited the blessed sacrament, and paid his homage to the B. 
Virgin in some solitary chapel. The Following of Christ, the Sum of 
the angelic doctor, and the Holy Scriptures, were always in his hands, 
and he took pleasure in reading the ascetic writers of his own country. 
In this way did he prepare himself, until the age of thirty, to become 
one of the most solid and gifted minds of our time, and to act the im- 
portant part to which he was called by Divine Providence. 

The first literary effort of Balmes before the public, was a prize essay 
which he wrote on clerical celibacy. This was soon followed by another 
production of his pen, entitled " Observations on the Property of the 
Clergy, in a social, political, and commercial point of view," which was 
elicited by the clamoring of the revolutionary army under EspaTtero for 
the spoliation of the clergy. The learning, philosophy and eloquence 
of the writer in this work, excited the wonder and admiration of the 
most distinguished statesmen in the country. Some months after, he 
published his " Political Considerations on the Condition of Spain," in 
which he had the courage to defend the rights of both parties in the 
country, and to suggest means of a conciliatory nature for restoring pub- 
lic order and tranquillity. 

Amidst these political efforts, Balmes did not lay aside his peculiar 
functions as a minister of God. The edification of the faithful, the reli- 
gious instruction of youth, and the defence of the faith against the 
assaults of heresy and rationalism, were constant objects of his atten- 
tion. During the same year, 1840, he translated and published the 
"Maxims of St. Francis of Sales for every day in the year;" he also 
composed a, species of catechism for the instruction of young persons, 
which was very extensively circulated. At the same time he undertook 
the preparation of the present work, in order to counteract the pernicious 
influence exerted among his countrymen by Guizot's lectures on Euro- 
pean civilization, and to neutralize the facilities offered under the regime 
of Espartero for the success of a Protestant Propagandism in Spain. 
The occasion and object of this work rendered it expedient that it should 
be published simultaneously in Spanish and in French, and with this 
view our author visited France, and afterwards, to extend his observa- 
tions, passed into England. 

On his return to Barcelona, towards the close of 1842, Balmes became 
a collaborator in the editing of the Civilization, a monthly periodical 
of great merit, devoted to literary reviews, and to solid instruction on 
1 



X 



NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 



the current topics of the day. His connection with this work lasted 
only eighteen months. He then commenced a review of his own, enti- 
tled the Sociedad, a philosophical, political, and religious journal, which 
acquired a great reputation during the one year of its existence. Driven 
soon after into retirement by the disturbances of the times, Balmes com- 
posed another philosophical w T ork, El Criterio, which is a course of 
logic adapted to every capacity. 

From the national uprising that overthrew the government of Espartero, 
there arose a general feeling of patriotic independence, which called for 
the cessation of civil strife, and the harmonizing of the two parties that 
divided the nation. Many of the adherents of Maria Christina, who 
were the nobility and the bourgeoisie, recognized the excesses of the 
revolutionary faction which they had called to their aid, while the Carlists 
were not all in favor of absolute monarchy, and numbered an imposing 
majority among the lower classes. All these men of wise and moderate 
views longed to see a remedy applied to the wounds of their afflicted 
country ; and with one accord they turned their eyes upon Balmes, as the 
only individual capable of conducting this important affair. He had 
already, in his Political Considerations, indicated the principal idea of 
his policy for putting an end to the national evils; it was a matrimonial 
alliance between the Queen and the son of Don Carlos. Under these 
circumstances he commenced in February, 1844, a new journal, entitled 
Pensamiento de la Nation, the object of which was to denounce the 
Tevolutionary spirit as the enemy of all just and peaceful government, 
and to inspire the Spanish people with a proper reverence for the re- 
ligious, social and political inheritance received from their ancestors, and 
with a due respect for the reasonable ameliorations of the age. In this 
spirit the different questions of the day were discussed with energy and 
calmness, and especially the project of an alliance between the Queen 
and the son of Don Carlos, which Balmes considered of the utmost im- 
portance. This measure, such as he proposed it, was, to use the lan- 
guage of his biographer, "the reconciliation of the past and the future, 
of authority and liberty, of monarchy and representative government." 
Such was the patriotism, dignity and force, with which our author con- 
ducted his hebdomadal, that it won the esteem of a large portion of the 
most distinguished men among the Carlists, while it also acquired favor 
among an immense number in the opposite party. To support its views, 
a daily journal, the Conciliador, was started by a body of young but 
fervid and brilliant writers, and nothing it would seem was wanting to 
insure a triumph for the friends of Spain. Prudence, energy, modera- 
tion, reason and eloquence, with a majority of the people on their side, 
deserved and should have commanded success; but they could not pre- 
vail against diplomatic influence and court intrigue. Balmes learned 
with equal surprise and affliction, in the retirement of his native moun- 



NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 



XI 



tains, that the government had resolved to offer the Queen in marriage to 
the infant Don Francisco, and the infanta to the Duke of Montpensier. 
This was a severe stroke to the sincere and ardent patriotism of Balmes. 
He might have resisted this policy with the power and eloquence of his 
pen, but he preferred a silent resignation to the heat of political strife,' 
and the Pensamiento de la Nacion, although a lucrative publication, was 
discontinued on the 31st of December, 1846. 

During that same year, our author collected into one volume his va- 
rious essays on politics, as well for his own vindication as for the diffu- 
sion of sound instruction on the condition of Spain. The following 
year he completed his " Elementary course of Philosophy." But his 
physical strength was not equal to these arduous labors. To re-establish 
in some degree his declining health, he travelled in Spain and France, 
and remained several weeks in Paris. The intellectual and moral cor- 
ruption which was gnawing at the very vitals of the French nation, and 
threatened all Europe with its infection, filled him with increased anxiety. 
He predicted the dissolution of society, and a return to barbarism, unless 
things would take some unexpected turn through the special interposition 
of Providence. This last hope was the only resource left, in his opinion, 
for the salvation of society and civilization, and he exulted when he be- 
held Pius IX opening a new career for Italy, and consecrating the aspi- 
rations and movements of all who advocated legitimate reform and ra- 
tional liberty. The political ameliorations, however, of the sovereign 
Pontiff appeared to the opponents of liberalism in Spain, at variance 
with the great opposition which Balmes had always exhibited to the rev- 
olutionary spirit. Hence, it became necessary for him to pay the just 
tribute of his admiration to the illustrious individual who sat in the chair 
of Peter, and to proclaim the eminent virtues of the prince and the 
pontiff. This he did with surpassing eloquence, in a brochure entitled 
Pius IX, the brilliant style of which is only equalled by its wisdom of 
thought. In this work, he sketches with graphic pen, the acts of the 
papal policy, showing that the holy see is the best guide of men in the 
path of liberty and progress, that Pius IX shows a profound knowledge 
of the evils that afflict society, and possesses all the energy and firmness 
necessary to apply their proper remedy. Balmes was full of hope for the 
future, in contemplating the course of the great head of the church, and 
he cherished this hope to the last moment of his life. His essay on the 
policy of Pius IX was the last production of his pen. His career in lit- 
erature was brief, but brilliant and effective, Eight years only had elapsed 
since his appearance as a writer, and he had labored with eminent suc- 
cess in every department of knowledge. The learned divine, the pro- 
found philosopher, the enlightened publicist, he has stamped upon his 
age the impress of his genius, and bequeathed to posterity a rich legacy 
in his immortal works. In the moral as well as in the intellectual point 



XII 



NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 



of view, his merit may be summed up in those words of Wisdom : 
"Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time." chap. iv. 

This distinguished ecclesiastic, the boast of the Spanish clergy and 
the Catalan people, died at Vich, his native city, on the 9th of July, 
1848, in the same spirit of lively faith and fervent piety which had al- 
ways marked his life. His funeral took place on the 11th, with all the 
pomp that could be furnished by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. 
The municipality decreed that one of the public places should be named 
after him. 

Balmes was little below the middle height, and of weak and slender 
frame. But the appearance of feeble health which he exhibited, was 
combatted by the animation of his looks. His forehead and lips bore the 
impress of energy, which was to be seen also in his eyes, black, deep- 
set, and of unusual brightness. The expression of his countenance was 
a mixture of vivacity, openness, melancholy and strength of mind. A 
careful observer of all his sacerdotal duties, he found in the practices of 
piety, the vigor which he displayed in his intellectual labors. The dis- 
tribution of his time was extremely methodical, and his pleasures con- 
sisted only in the society of his friends. To the prospect of temporal 
honors and the favor of the great, he was insensible ; neither did he seek 
after ecclesiastical dignities or literary distinctions. His aim was the 
diffusion of truth, not the acquisition of a great reputation. These quali- 
ties, however, with his eminent talents, varied erudition, and invaluable 
writings, have won for him a universal fame. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE NAME AND NATURE OF PROTESTANTISM, Page 25 

CHAPTER II. 

THE CAUSES OF PROTESTANTISM. 

What ought to be attributed to the genius of its founders — Different causes assigned for 
it — Errors on this subject — Opinions of Guizot — Of Bossuet — True cause of Protestant- 
ism to be found in the social condition of European nations, 28 

CHAPTER III. 

EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENON IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Divinity of the Catholic Church proved by its relations with the human mind — Remarka- 
ble acknowledgment of M. Guizot — Consequences of that acknowledgment, . . 38 

CHAPTER IV. 

PROTESTANTISM AND THE HUMAN MIND. 

Protestantism contains a principle of dissolution — It tends naturally to destroy all faith — 
Dangerous direction given to the human mind — Description of the human mind, . 42 

CHAPTER V. 

INSTINCT OF FAITH IN THE SCIENCES. 

Instinct of faith — This instinct extends to all the sciences — Newton, Descartes — Observa- 
tions on the history of philosophy — Proselytism — Present condition of the human 



mind, 46 

CHAPTER VI. 

DIFFERENT RELIGIOUS WANTS OF NATIONS MATHEMATICS MORAL SCIENCES. 

Important error committed by Protestantism, with regard to the religious government of 
the human mind, 50 



CHAPTER VII. 

INDIFFERENCE AND FANATICISM. 

Two opposite evils, fruits of Protestantism — Origin of fanaticism — The Church has pre- 
pared the history of the human mind — Private interpretation of the Bible — Passage from 
O'Callaghan — Description of the Bible, 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 

FANATICISM ITS DEFINITION FANATICISM IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Connexion between fanaticism and religious feeling — Impossibility of destroying it — Means 
of diminishing it — The Church has used these means, and with what result? — Observa- 
tions on the pretended Catholic fanatics — Description of the religious excitement of the 
founders of orders in the Church, 57 

CHAPTER IX. 

INCREDULITY AND RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE IN EUROPE THE FRUITS OF PROTESTANTISM. 

Lamentable symptoms of these from the beginning of Protestantism — Remarkable reli- 
gious crisis in the latter part of the seventeenth century — Bossuet and Leibnitz — The 
Jansenists — Their influence — Dictionary of Bayle — The epoch when that work ap- 
peared—State of opinions among the Protestants, 60 

CHAPTER X. 

CAUSES OF THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF PROTESTANTISM. 

Important question with regard to the continuance of Protestantism — Religious indiffer- 
ence with respect to man collectively and individually — European societies with relation 
to Mahometanism and idolatry — How Catholicity and Protestantism are capable of de- 
fending the truth — Intimate connexion between Christianity and European civiliza- 
tion, 64 



XIV 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE POSITIVE DOCTRINES OF PROTESTANTISM ARE REPUGNANT TO THE INSTINCT OF 

CIVILIZATION. 

Doctrines of Protestantism divided into positive and negative — Singular phenomenon : one 
of the principal dogmas of the founders of Protestantism repugnant to European civili- 
zation — Eminent service which Catholicity has done to civilization by defending free 
w iH — Nature of error — Nature of truth, 68 

CHAPTER XII. 

EFFECTS WHICH THE INTRODUCTION OF PROTESTANTISM INTO SPAIN WOULD HAVE PRODCCED. 

Present state of religious ideas in Europe — Victories of religion — State of science and lite- 
rature — Condition of modern society — Conjectures on the future influence of Catholi- 
city — Is it probable that Protestantism will be introduced into Spain ? — England — Her 
connexion with Spain — Pitt — Nature of religious ideas in Spain — Situation of Spain — 
How she may be regenerated, 70 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICITY IN THEIR RELATION TO SOCIAL PROGRESS PRELIMINA- 
RY COUP D'ffilL. 

Commencement of the parallel — Liberty — Vas:ue meaning of the word — European civiliza- 
tion chiefly due to Catholicity — East and West — Conjectures on the destinies of Catho- 
licity amid the catastrophies that may threaten in Europe — Observations on philosophi- 
cal studies — Fatalism of a certain modern historical school, 79 

CHAPTER XIV. 

DID THERE EXIST, AT THE TIME WHEN CHRISTIANITY APPEARED, ANOTHER PRINCIPLE OF 

REGENERATION ? 

Condition, religious, social, and scientific, of the world at the appearance of Christianity — 
Roman law — The influence of Christian ideas thereon — Evils of the political organization 
of the empire — System adopted by Christianity ; her first care was to change ideas — 
Christianity and Paganism with regard to the teaching of moral doctrines — Protestant 
preaching, 84 

CHAPTER XV. 

DIFFICULTIES WHICH CHRISTIANITY HAD TO OVERCOME IN THE WORK OF SOCIAL REGENE- 
RATION SLAVERY COULD IT HAVE BEEN DESTROYED MORE SPEEDILY THAN IT WAS BY 

CHRISTIANITY? 

The Church was not only a great and productive school, but she was also a regenerating 
association — What she had to do — Difficulties which she had to overcome—Slavery — 
By whom was it abolished ? — Opinion of M. Guizot — Immense number of the slaves — 
Caution necessary in the abolition of slavery — Was immediate abolition possible? — Re- 
futation of the opinion of M. Guizot, 90 

CHAPTER XVI. 

IDEAS AND MANNERS OF ANTIQUITY RESPECTING SLAVERY THE CHURCH BEGINS BY IM- 
PROVING THE CONDITION OF SLAVES. 

The Catholic Church not only employs her doctrines, her maxims, and her spirit of cha- 
rity, but also makes use of practical means in the abolition of slavery — Point of view in 
which this historical fact ought to be considered — False ideas of the ancients on the sub- 
ject — Homer, Plato, Aristotle — Christianity began forthwith to combat these errors — 
'Christian doctrines on the connexion between master and slave — The Church employs 
herself in improving the condition of slaves, 94 

CHAPTER XVII. 

MEANS USED BY THE CHURCH TO ENFRANCHISE SLAVES. 

1st. She zealously defends the liberty of the enfranchised — Manumission in the churches — 
Effects of this practice — 2d. Redemption of captives — Zeal of the Church in practising 
and extending the redemption of captives — Prejudices of the Romans on this point — 
The zeal of the Church for this object contributes, in an extraordinary degree, to the 
abolition of slavery — The Church protects the liberty of the free, . . . 102 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT. 

3d. System of the Church with regard to slaves belonging to Jews — Motives which ac- 
tuated the Church in the enfranchisement of her own slaves — Her indulgence to them — 
Her generosity towards the freed — The slaves of the Church considered as consecrated 
to God — Salutary effects of this way of viewing them — 4th. Liberty is granted to those 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

who wish to embrace the monastic state — Effects of this practice — Conduct of the Church 
with regard to the ordination of slaves — Abuses introduced in this respect checked — Dis- 
cipline of the Spanish Church on this point, 106 



CHAPTER XIX. 

DOCTRINES OF ST. AUGUSTIN AND ST. THOMAS OF AQUIN ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY — 

RECAPITULATION. 

Doctrine of St. Augustin on this subject — Importance of this doctrine with respect to the 
abolition of slavery — Refutation of M. Guizot — Doctrine of St. Thomas on the same 
subject — Marriage of slaves — Regulation of canon law on that subject — Resume of the 
means employed by the Church in the abolition of slavery — Refutation of M. Guizot — 
The abolition of slavery exclusively due to Catholicity — Protestantism had no share 

therein, Ill 

CHAPTER XX. 

CONTRAST BETWEEN THE TWO KINDS OF CIVILIZATION. 

Picture of modern civilization — Civilizations not Christian — Civilization is composed of 
three elements : the individual, the family, and the society — The perfectness of these 
three elements depends on the perfectness of doctrines, 115 

CHAPTER XXI. 

OF THE INDIVIDUAL OF THE FEELING OF INDIVIDUALITY OUT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

Distinction between the individual and the citizen — Of the individuality of barbarians ac- 
cording to M. Guizot — Whether in antiquity individuality belonged exclusively to the 
barbarians — Twofold principle of the feeling of personal independence — This feeling infi- 
nitely modified — Picture of barbarian life — True character of individuality among the 
barbarians — Avowal of M. Guizot — The feeling of individuality, according to the defini- 
tion of M. Guizot, belongs in a certain way to all the ancient nations, . . .118 

CHAPTER XXII. 

HOW THE INDIVIDUAL BECAME ABSORBED BY THE ANCIENT SOCIETY. 

Respect for man unknown to the ancients — What has been seen in modern revolutions — 
Tyranny of public power over private interests — Explanation of a twofold phenomenon, 
■which presents itself to us in antiquity and in modern societies not Christian — Opinion of 
Aristotle — Remarkable characteristic of modern democracy, 126 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

OF THE PROGRESS OF INDIVIDUALITY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CATHOLICITY. 

The feeling of true independence was possessed by the faithful of the primitive Church- 
Error of M. Guizot on this point: ]st, dignity of conscience sustained by the Christian 
society; 2d, feeling of duty; language of St. Cyprian; 3d, development of the interior 
life ; 4th, defence of free will by the Catholic Church — Conclusion, . . . 131 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

OF THE FAMILY MONOGAMY MARRIAGE-TIE INDISSOLUBLE. 

Woman ennobled by Catholicity alone — Practical means employed by the Church to raise 
woman — Christian doctrine on the dignity of woman — Monogamy — Different conduct of 
Catholicity and Protestantism on this point — Firmness of Rome with respect to mar- 
riage — Effects of that firmness — Doctrine of Luther — Indissolubility of marriage — Of 
divorce among Protestants — Effects of Catholic doctrine with regard to this sacra- 
ment, 135 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE PASSION OF LOVE. 

Pretended rigor of Catholicity with respect to unhappy marriages — Two systems of gov- 
erning the passions — Protestant system — Catholic system — Examples — Passion of gam- 
bling — Explosion of the passions in time of public troubles — Of the passion of love — Its 
inconstancy — Marriage alone is not a sufficient control — What is wanted to make it a 
control — Of the unity and fixity of Catholic doctrine — Conclusion, . . . 140 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

OF VIRGINITY IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT. 

Of the ennoblement of woman by virginity — Conduct of Protestantism on this point- 
Close analysis of the heart of woman — Of virginity with respect to population — England 
— Serious thoughts required for the mind of woman — Salutary influence of monastic 
customs — General method of appreciation, 146 



XVI 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. # 

OF CHIVALRY, AND THE MANNERS OF THE BARBARIANS IN THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE CONDI- 
TION OF WOMAN. 

The life of feudal lords according to M. Guizot — The passions and faith in chivalry — Chiv- 
alry did not ennoble woman, it supposed her to be ennobled — Of the respect of the Ger- 
mans for woman — Analysis of a passage of Tacitus — Reflections on that historian — It is 
difficult thoroughly to understand the manners of the Germans — Action of Catholicity — 
Important distinction between Christianity and Catholicity — That the Germans of them- 
selves were incapable of giving dignity to woman, . . . . . . .150 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

OF THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE IN GENERAL. 

What the public conscience is — Influence of the feelings on the public conscience in general 
— Education contributes to form the conscience — State of the public conscience in modern 
times — What has been able to form the public conscience in Europe — Successive contests 
maintained by Christian morality, 157 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

OF THE PRINCIPLE OF THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE ACCORDING TO MONTESQUIEU HONOR 

VIRTUE. 

Institution of censors according to Montesquieu — Two kinds of prejudice in the author of 
the Esprit des Lois — He assigns honor as the principle of monarchies, and virtue as that 
of republics — Explanation of the feeling of honor — What is required to strengthen this 
feeling — The censorial power replaced by the religious — Examples — Contrasts, . 161 



CHAPTER XXX. 

ON THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCE OF PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICITY ON THE PUBLIC 

CONSCIENCE. 

Catholicity considered as a creed — As an institution — Ideas, in order to be efficacious, must 
be realized in an institution — What Protestantism has done to destroy Christian morality 
— What it has done to preserve it — What is the real power of preaching among Protest- 
ants — Of the sacrament of penance with relation to the public conscience — Of the degree 
to which the Catholic religion raises morality — Of unity in the soul — Unity simplifies — 
Of the great number of moralists within the bosom of the Catholic Church — Of the pecu- 
liar force of ideas — Distinction between ideas with respect to their peculiar force — Whe- 
ther the human race is a faithful depositary of the truth — How the truth has been pre- 
served among the Jews — The native power of Schools — Institutions are required, not 
only to teach, but also to apply doctrines — Of the press with relation to the preservation 
of ideas — Of intuition — Of discourses, 1G5 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

OF GENTLENESS OF MANNERS IN GENERAL. 

Wherein gentleness of manners consists — Difference between gentle and effeminate man- 
ners — Influence of the Catholic Church in softening manners — Pagan and Christian 
societies — Slavery — Paternal authority — Public games — Reflections on Spanish bull- 
fights, . . 172 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

OF THE AMELIORATION OF MANNERS BY THE ACTION OF THE CHURCH. 

Elements adapted to perpetuate harshness of manners in the bosom of modern society — 
Conduct of the Church in this respect — Remarkable canons and facts — St. Ambrose and 
the Emperor Theodosius — The Truce of God — Very remarkable regulations of the eccle- 
siastical authority on this subject, 175 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC BENEFICENCE IN EUROPE. 

Difference between Protestantism and Catholicity with respect to public beneficence — Para- 
dox of Montesquieu — Remarkable canons of the Church — Injury done by Protestantism 
to the development of public beneficence — The value of philanthropy, . . .184 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

OF TOLERANCE IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 

The question of intolerance has been examined with bad faith — What tolerance is — Toler- 
ance of opinions — Of error — Tolerance in the individual — With religious men — With un- 
believers — Two kinds of religious men — Two kinds of unbelievers — Tolerance in society 
— What is its origin ? — Source of the tolerance which prevails in society at present, 189 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



XVII 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

OF THE RIGHT OF COERCION IN GENERAL. 

Intolerance is a general fact in history — Dialogues with the partisans of universal tolerance 
— Does there exist a right of punishing doctrines? — Researches into the origin of that 
right — Disastrous influence of Protestantism and infidelity in this matter — Of the import- 
ance which Catholicity attaches to the sin of heresy — Inconsistency of certain timid Vol- 
tairians — Another reflection on the right of punishing doctrines — Resume, . . 196 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

OF THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 

Institutions and legislation founded on intolerance — Causes of the rigor displayed in the 
early times of the Inquisition — Three epochs in the history of the Inquisition in Spain : 
against the Jews and Moors; against the Protestants; against the unbelievers — Severi- 
ties of the Inquisition — Causes of those severities — Conduct of the Popes in that matter 
— Mildness of the Roman Inquisition — The intolerance of Luther with respect to the 
Jews — The Moors and Moriscoes, 203 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

SECOND PERIOD OF THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN, f 

New Inquisition attributed to Philip IT. — Opinion of M. Lacordaire — Prejudice against Phi- 
lip II. — Observations on the work called Inquisition Devoilee — Rapid coup d'cril at the se- 
cond epoch of the Inquisition — Trial of Carranza — Observation on this trial, and on the 
personal qualities of the illustrious accused — Why there is so much partiality against 
Philip II. — Reflections on the policy of that monarch — Singular anecdote of a preacher 
who was compelled to retract — Reflections on the influence of the spirit of the age, 210 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THEMSELVES. 

Conduct of Protestantism with respect to religious institutions — Whether these institutions 
have been of importance in history — Sophism on the subject of the real origin of reli- 
gious institutions — Their correct definition — Of association among the early faithful — The 
faithful dispersed in the deserts — Relations between the Papacy and religious institutions 
— Of an essential want of the human heart — Of Christian pensiveness — Of the need of 
associations for the practice of perfection — Of vows — A vow is the most perfect act of 
liberty — True notion of liberty, . . . 219 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN HISTORY THE EARLY SOLITARIES. 

Character of religious institutions in a historical point of view — The Roman empire — The 
barbarians — The early Christians — Condition of the Church when Christianity ascended 
the throne of the Caesars — Life of the fathers of the desert — Influence of the solitaries on 
philosophy and manners — The heroism of penance saves morality — The most corrupting 
climate chosen for the triumph of the most austere virtues, . 229 

CHAPTER XL. 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THE EAST. 

Influence of monasteries in the East — Why civilization triumphed in the West and perished 
in the East — Influence of the Eastern monasteries on Arabian civilization, . . 234 

CHAPTER XLI. 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEST. 

Peculiar character of religious institutions in the West — St. Benedict — Struggle of the 
monks against the decline of things — Origin of monastic property — The possessions of 
the monks serve to create respect for property — Population becomes spread over the 
country — Science and letters in cloisters — Gratian arouses the study of law, . . 238 

CHAPTER XLII. 

OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE MIDDLE AGES IN THE WEST 

THE MILITARY ORDERS. 

Character of the military orders — Opinion of the Crusades — The foundation of the military 
orders is a continuation of the Crusades, 242 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT EUROPE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 

Transformation of the monastic spirit in the thirteenth century — Religious institutions arise 
every where — Character of European opposed to that of other civilizations — Mixture of 
2 



XVIII 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



various elements in the spirit of the thirteenth century — Semi-barbarous society — Chris- 
tianity and barbarism — A delusion common in the study of history — Condition of Eu- 
rope at the beginning of the thirteenth century — Wars become more popular — Why the 
intellectual movement began in Spain sooner than in the rest of Europe — Ebullition of 
evil during the course of the twelfth century — Tancheme — Eon — The Manichees — Vuu- 
dois — Religious movement at the beginning of the thirteenth century — The mendicant 
and preaching orders — The character of these orders — Their influence — Their relations 
with the Papacy, 244 

CHAPTER XLIV. 

RELIGIOUS ORDERS FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES. 

Multitude of Christians reduced to slavery — Religious orders for the redemption of captives 
were necessary — The Order of the Trinity and that of Mercy — St. Peter Armengol, 256 

CHAPTER XLV. 

UNIVERSAL ADVANCE OF CIVILIZATION IMPEDED BY PROTESTANTISM. 

Effects of Protestantism on the progress of civilization in the world, beginning with the 
sixteenth century — What enabled civilization, during the middle ages, to triumph over 
barbarism — Picture of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century — The civilizing 
missions of the 16th century interrupted by the schism of Luther — Why the action of 
the Church on barbarous nations has lost power during three centuries — Whether the 
Christianity of our days is less adapted to propagate the faith than that of the early ages 
of the Church — Christian missions in the early times of the Church — What the real 
mission of Luther has been, . 260 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE JESUITS. 

Their importance in the history of European civilization — Causes of the hatred which has 
been excited against them — Character of the Jesuits — Contradiction of M. Guizot on this 
subject — Whether it be true, as M. Guizot says, that the Jesuits have destroyed nations 
in Spain — Facts and dates — Unjust accusations against the Company of Jesus, . 2C8 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS THEIR PRESENT NECESSITY. 

Present state of religious institutions — Picture of society — Inability of industry and com- 
merce to satisfy the heart of man — Condition of minds with respect to religion — Reli- 
gious institutions will be necessary to save existing society — Nothing fixed in that so- 
ciety — Means are wanting for social organization — The march of European nations has 
been perverted — Physical means of restraining the masses — Moral means are required — 
Religious institutions reconcilable with the advancement of modern times, . . 274 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

RELIGION AND LIBERTY. 

Rousseau — The Protestants — Divine law — Origin of power — False interpretation of the 
divine law — St. John Chrysostom — On paternal authority — Relations between paternal 
authority and civil power, 281 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE ORIGIN OF SOCIETY, ACCORDING TO CATHOLIC THEOLOGIANS. 

Doctrines of theologians on the origin of society — The character of Catholic theologians 
compared to that of modern writers — St. Thomas — Bellarmin — Suarez — St. Alphonsus 
de Liguori — Father Concina — Billuart — The Compendium of Salamanca, . . 288 

CHAPTER L. 

OF DIVINE LAW, ACCORDING TO CATHOLIC DOCTORS. 

On the divine law — Divine origin of civil power — In what manner God communicates this 
power — Rousseau — On pacts — The right of life and death — The right of war — Power 
must necessarily emanate from God — Puffendorff — Hobbes, 296 

CHAPTER LI. 

THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER, ACCORDING TO CATHOLIC DOCTORS. 

Direct or indirect communication of civil power — The distinction between the two opinions 
important in some respects; in others, not so — Why Catholic theologians have so zeal- 
ously maintained the doctrine of mediate communication, . . 305 

CHAPTER LII. 

ON THE FREEDOM OF LANGUAGE UNDER THE SPANISH MONARCHY. 

Influence of doctrines on society — Flattery lavished on power — Danger of this flattery — 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



XIX 



Liberty of speech on this point in Spain during the last three centuries — Mariana — 
Saavedra — In the absence of religion and morality, the most rigorous political doctrines 
are incapable of saving society — -Why the conservative schools of our days are power- 
less — Seneca — Cicero — Hobbes — Bellarmin, . . ... . • • 311 

CHAPTER LIII. 

OF THE FACULTIES OF THE CIVIL POWER. 

Of the faculties of civil power — Calumnies of the enemies of the Church — Definition of law 
according to St. Thomas — General reason and general will — The venerable Palafox — 
Hobbes — Grotius — The doctrines of certain Protestants favorable to despotism — Justifi- 
cation of the Catholic Church, 317 

CHAPTER LIV. 

ON" RESISTANCE TO THE CIVIL POWER. 

Of resistance to the civil power — Parallel between Protestantism and Catholicity on this 
point — Unfounded apprehensions of certain minds — Attitude of revolutions in this age— ■ 
The principle inculcated by Catholicity on the obligation of obeying the lawful authori- 
ties — Preliminary questions — Difference between the two powers — Conduct of Catholi- 
city and Protestantism, with regard to the separation of the two powers — The indepen- 
dence of the spiritual power a guarantee of liberty to the people — Extremes which meet — 
The doctrine of St. Thomas on obedience, 324 

CHAPTER LV. 

ON RESISTANCE TO DE FACTO GOVERNMENTS. 

Governments existing merely de facto — Right of resistance to these governments — Napoleon 
and the Spanish nation — fallacy of the doctrine establishing the obligation of obedience 
to mere de facto governments — Investigation of certain difficulties — Accomplished facts — 
How we are to understand the respect due to accomplished facts, . . . 330 

CHAPTER LVI. 

HOW IT IS ALLOWED TO RESIST THE CIVIL POWER. 

On resistance to lawful authority — The doctrines of the Council of Constance on the assas- 
sination of a king — A reflection on the inviolability of kings — Extreme cases — Doctrine 
of St. Thomas of Aquin, Cardinal Bellarmin, Suarez, and other theologians — The Abbe 
de Lamennais' errors — He is wrong in imagining that his doctrine, condemned by the 
Pope, is the same as St. Thomas of Aquin 's — A parallel between the doctrines of St. 
Thomas and those of the Abbe de Lamennais — A word on the temporal power of the 
Popes — Ancient doctrines on resistance to power — Language of the Counsellors of Bar- 
celona — The doctrine of certain theologians on the case of the Sovereign Pontiff's falling 
into heresy in his private capacity — Why the Church has been calumniously accused of 
being sometimes favorable to despotism, and sometimes to anarchy, . . . 336 

CHAPTER LVII. 

ON POLITICAL SOCIETY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

The Church and political forms — Protestantism and liberty — Language of M. Guizot — The 
state of the question better defined — Europe at the end of the fifteenth century — Social 
movement at this epoch — Its causes — Its effects and its aim — The three elements, mon- 
archy, aristocracy, and democracy, .......... 343 

CHAPTER LVIII. 

ON MONARCHY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

The idea entertained of monarchy at this period — The application of this idea — Difference 
between monarchy and despotism — The nature of monarchy at the commencement of the 
sixteenth century — Its relations with the Church, 346 

CHAPTER LIX. 

ON ARISTOCRACY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

The nobility and the clergy — The differences between these two aristocracies — The nobility 
and monarchy — Differences between them — An intermediate class between the throne 
and the people — The causes of the fall of the nobility, 348 

CHAPTER LX. 

ON DEMOCRACY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

The opinion entertained of democracy — The prevailing doctrines of that epoch — The doc- 
trines of Aristotle neutralised by the teaching of Christianity — On castes — A passage from 
M. Guizot on castes — Influence of the celibacy of the clergy in preventing an hereditary 
succession — The consequences resulting from a married clergy — Catholicity and the peo- 



XX 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



pie — Development of the industrial classes in Europe — The Hanseatic Confederation — 
Establishment of the trades-corporations of Paris — Industrial movement in Italy and 
Spain — Calvinism and the democratic element — Protestantism and the democrats of the 
sixteenth century, 350 

CHAPTER LXI. 

VALUE OF DIFFERENT POLITICAL FORMS CHARACTER OF MONARCHY IN EUROPE. 

Value of political forms — Catholicity and liberty — Monarchy was essential — Character of 
European monarchy — Difference between Europe and Asia — (Quotation from Count de 
Maistre — An institution for the limiting of power — Political liberty not indebted to Pro- 
testantism — Influence of Councils — The aristocracy of talent encouraged by the 
Church 356 

CHAPTER LXII. 

HOW MONARCHY WAS STRENGTHENED IN EUROPE. 

Monarchy in the sixteenth century is strengthened in Europe — Its preponderance over free 
institutions — Why the word liberty is a scandal to some people — Protestantism contri- 
buted to the destruction of popular institutions, 361 

CHAPTER LXIII. 

*TWO SORTS OF DEMOCRACY. 

Two sorts of democracy — Their parallel march in the history of Europe — Their characters 
— Their causes and effects — Why absolutism became necessary in Europe — Historical 
facts — France — England — Sweden — Denmark — Germany, 364 

CHAPTER LXIV. 

CONTEST BETWEEN THE THREE SOCIAL ELEMENTS. 

Contest between monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy — How monarchy came to prevail 
— Fatal effects of the weakening of the political influence of the clergy — Advantages 
which might have arisen from this influence to popular institutions — Relations of the 
clergy with all powers and classes of society, ... ... 370 

CHAPTER LXV. 

POLITICAL DOCTRINES BEFORE THE APPEARANCE OF PROTESTANTISM. 

Parallel between the political doctrines of the eighteenth century, those of modern public- 
ists, and those which prevailed in Europe before the appearance of Protestantism — 
Protestantism has prevented the homogeneity of European civilization — Historical 
proofs, ......... .... 374 

CHAPTER LXVI. 

OF POLITICAL DOCTRINES IN SPAIN. 

Catholicity and politics in Spain — Real state of the question — Five causes contributed to 
the overthrow of popular institutions in Spain — Difference between ancient and modern 
liberty — The Communeros of Castille — The policy of her kings — Ferdinand the Catholic 
and Ximenes— Charles V.— Philip II., 377 

CHAPTER LXVII. 

POLITICAL LIBERTY AND RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE. 

Political liberty and religious intolerance — Europe was developed under the exclusive influ- 
ence of Catholicity — Picture of Europe from the eleventh to the fourteenth century — Con- 
dition of the social problem at the end of the fifteenth century — Temporal power of the 
Popes — Its character, origin, and effects, 382 

CHAPTER LXVIII. 

UNITY IN FAITH RECONCILED WITH POLITICAL LIBERTY. 

It is false that unity of faith is opposed to political liberty — Impiety is allied with liberty or 
despotism, according to circumstances — Modern revolutions — Difference between the re- 
volution of the United States and that of France — Pernicious effects of the French revo- 
lution — Liberty impossible without morality — Remarkable passage from St. Augustin on 
forms of government, . 393 

CHAPTER LXIX. 

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CATHOLICITY. 

Catholicity in its relations with intellectual development — What is the influence of the prin- 
ciple of submission to authority — What are the effects of this principle with respect to 
all the sciences— Parallel between ancients and moderns— God— Man — Society— Ma- 
ture, 392 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



XXI 



CHAPTER LXX. 

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Historical investigation of the influence of Catholicity on the development of the human 
mind — Refutation of one of M. Guizot's opinions — John Erigena — Roscelin and Abelard 
—St. Anselm, 398 

CHAPTER LXXI. 

RELIGION AND THE HUMAN INTELLECT IN EUROPE. 

Religion and the human intellect in Europe — Difference between the intellectual develop- 
ment of the nations of antiquity and those of Europeans — Causes that have accelerated 
this development in Europe — Origin of the spirit of subtilty — Service which the Church 
rendered to the human mind by her opposition to the subtilties of the innovators — Paral- 
lel between Roscelin and St. Anselm — Reflections on St. Bernard — St. Thomas of Aquin 
— Advantage of his dictatorship in the schools — Advent of St. Thomas in the middle 
ages of immense advantage to the human mind, 404 

CHAPTER LXXII. 

PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN MIND FROM THE ELEVENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT TIME. 

Progress of the human mind from the eleventh century to our own times — Different phases 
— Protestantism and Catholicity in their relations to learning, to criticism, to the learned 
languages, to the foundation of universities, to the progress of literature and the arts, to 
mysticism, to high philosophy, to metaphysics, to ethics, to religious philosophy, and to 
the philosophy of history 412 

CHAPTER LXXIII. 

SUMMARY OF THE WORK DECLARATION OF THE AUTHOR. 

Summary of ti e work — The author submits it to the judgment of the Roman Church, 419 



TABLE OF NOTES. 



NOTK PAGE 

1 421. Gibbon and Bossuet's History of 

the Variations. 

2 421. Intolerance of Luther and the other 

Coryphaei of Protestantism. 

3 421. Origin of the name Protestantism 

4 422. Observations on names. 

5 422. Of abuses in the Church. 

6 423. Of the unity and harmonious ac- 

tion of Catholicism — Happy idea 
of St. Francis of Sales. 

7 423. Acknowledgments of the most dis- 

tinguished Protestants with re- 
gard to its weakness — Luther, 
Melancthon, Beza, Calvin, Gro- 
tius.Papin, Puffendorf and Leib- 
nitz — Of a posthumous work by 
Leibnitz on religion. 

8 424. On human knowledge — Louis 

Vives. 

9 425. On mathematics — Eximeno, a Spa- 

nish Jesuit. 

10 425. Heresies of the early ages — their 

character. 

11 425. Superstition and fanaticism of 

Protestantism — Luther's devil, 
Zwinglius's phantom, Melanc- 
thon's prognostics, Mathias Har- 
lem, the Tailor of Leyden, King 
of Sion; Hermann, Nicholas 
Hacket, and others, visionaries 
and fanatics. 

12 427. Visions of Catholics— St. Theresa, 

her visions. 

13 423. Bad faith of the founders of Protes- 

tantism — Passages proving- this 
— Ravages committed by incred- 
ulity after that time — Gruet — 
Remarkable passages from Mon- 
taigne. 

14 429. Extravagance of the early heresies, 

a proof of the state of knowledge 
in those times. 

15 430. Canons and other documents which 

shew the solicitude of the Church 
to improve the lot of slaves, and 
the various means which she 
used to complete the abolition of 
slavery. 

§ 1. Canons intended to im- 
prove the lot of slaves. 
§2. Canons intended to defend 
the freed, and to protect 
those who were recom- 
mended to the Church. 
§ 3. Canons and other docu- 
ments relating to the re- 
demption of captives. 
§ 4. Canons relating" to the 
protection of the freed. 



15 436. § 5. Canons concerning the 

slaves of Jews. 

§ 6. Canons concerning- the 
enfranchisement of the 
slaves of the Church. 

§ 7. Conduct of the Church 
with regard to modern 
slavery — Apostolic let- 
ters of St. Gregory XVI. 
— Slave trade — Doctrine, 
conduct, and influence of 
the Church with regard 
to the abolition of the 
trade, and of slavery in 
the Colonies — Passag-e 
from Robertson. 

16 442. Doctrines of Plato and Aristotle 

touching- infanticide— Their doc- 
trine on~the rig-hts of society. 

17 444. Degradation of woman in ancient 

times, especially in Rome. 

18 444. The Germans of Tacitus judg-ed 

according- to subsequent events. 

19 445. Corruption of ancient manners. 

20 445. Different opinions of religion and 

philosophy on the power of ideas 
— How far it is true that every 
idea requires an institution. 

21 446. Christianity is still in our days the 

source of mildness of manners. 
22. 447. Influence of the Church on barba- 
rian legislation — Councils of To- 
ledo — What the indulgence of 
the criminal code among the 
barbarians proves. 

23 449. Constant intervention of the 

Church in the administration of 
public beneficence— Regulations 
of the Council of Trent on this 
subject — Property of hospitals 
considered as that of the Church. 

24 ^ 450. Reference to the following note. 

25 450. Distinction between civil and reli- 

gious intolerance — Error of 
Rousseau on this point — False 
doctrine of the Contrat Social. 

26 452. Passages from old laws relative to 

the Inquisition.— Pragmatic sanc- 
tion of Ferdinand and Isabella — 
Laws of Philip II. and III. — Prag 
matic sanction of Ferdinand and 
Isabella concerning the relations 
of the Spanish Inquisition with 
Rome — Passage from Don Anto- 
nio Perez, which mentions the 
anecdote of the preacher at Mad- 
rid — Letter from Phillip II. to 
Arias Montano, on the subject of 
the library of the Escurial. 



xxiv 



TABLE OF NOTES. 



NOTE PAGE 

26 456. (Appendix.) A few words on Puig- 

blanch,Villeneuve,and Llorente. 

27 458. Religious institutions in an histo- 

rical point of view — Last coxip- 
d'otil at their origin and develop- 
ment — Details with respect to 
the vow of chastity which virgins 
and widows made in the early 
ages of the Church. 

28 459. Remarkable texts explaining the 

passage of St. Paul in the 13th 
chapter of his Epistle to the Ro- 
mans — Cicero — Horace. 

29 462. A remarkable fact. 

30 463. Quotations from P. Fr. John de 

Ste. - Marie, and from P. Zeballos. 

31 470. St. Thomas reminds princes of 

their duties. 

32 471. The opinion of D. Felix d'Amat, 

bishop of Palmyra, on the obedi- 
ence due to de facto governments. 

33 471. Remarkable passages from St. 

Thomas and Suarez, on the dis- 
putes which may arise between 
governors and the governed — 
Father Marquez on the same 
subject. 

34 475. Charter of Hermandad, between the 

kingdoms of Leon and Galicia 
and that of Castille, for the pre- 
servation and defence of their 
fueros and liberties. 

35 476. A remarkable passage from Cap- 

many on the organization of the 
industrial classes — The origin 
and salutary effects of the insti- 
tution of trades- corporation. 

36 480. Reflections of Count de Maistre 

on the causes which render the 
celebration of General Councils 
less frequent. 

37 480. Indication of historical sources for 

the confirmation of certain facts. 



NOTE PAGE 

38 480. Texts of St. Thomas on political 

forms — Other texts of St. Thomas 
to prove that the law, and not 
the will of man, should govern — 
Opinions of P. Mariana — Opin- 
ions of the venerable Palafux on 
the subject of imposts, taken 
from his Memoir to the King — 
Severe language of the same 
author against tyranny and 
those who advise or excuse it — 
Passage from P. Marquez on the 
right of levying tributes in gen- 
eral ; its particular application 
to Castile — The opinion of the 
same author relative to the right 
of the supreme authority to the 
property of its subjects — A case 
in which, according to him, that 
authority may dispose of this 
property. 

39 484. Reference to historical sources to 

ascertain the march of the de- 
velopment of monarchical power 
in the different provinces of 
Spain. 

40 484. A just observation of Count de 

Maistre on the conduct of the 
Popes compared to that of other 
sovereigns. 

41 485. Passages in which St. Anselm ex- 

pounds his views on religious 
subjects — Intellectual movement 
arising in the bosom of the 
Church without transgressing 
the bounds of faith — Another 
passage proving that the demon- 
stration applied by Descartes to 
the existence of God had been 
discovered by St. Anselm — Cor- 
roborative Documents in support 
of a refutation of M. Guizot's er- 
rors on the doctrines of Abelard. 



PROTESTANTISM 

COMPARED WITH 

CATHOLICITY. 



CHAPTER I. 

NAME AND NATURE OF PROTESTANTISM. 

There is a fact in existence among civilized nations, very important on 
account of the nature of the things which it affects — a fact of transcendent im- 
portance, on account of the number, variety, and consequence of its influences 
> — a fact extremely interesting, because it is connected with the principal events 
of modern history. This fact is Protestantism. 

Like a clap of thunder, it attracted at once the attention of all Europe; on 
one side it spread alarm, and on the other excited the most lively sympathy : it 
grew so rapidly, that its adversaries had not time to strangle it in its cradle. 
Scarcely had it begun to exist, and already all hope of stopping, or even re- 
straining it, was gone; when, emboldened by being treated with respect and 
consideration, it became every day more daring; if exasperated by rigour, it 
openly resisted measures of coercion, or redoubled and concentrated its forces, 
to make more vigorous attacks. Discussions, the profound investigations and 
scientific methods which were used in combating it, contributed to develope the 
spirit of inquiry, and served as vehicles to propagate its ideas. 

By creating new and prevailing interests, it made itself powerful protectors; 
by throwing all the passions into a state of fury, it aroused them in its favor. 
It availed itself, by turns, of stratagem, force, seduction, or violence, according 
to the exigencies of times and circumstances. It attempted to make its way in 
all directions; either destroying impediments, or taking advantage of them, if 
they were capable of being turned to account. 

When introduced into a country, it never rested until it had obtained guaran- 
tees for its continued existence ; and it succeeded in doing so everywhere. After 
having obtained vast establishments in Europe — which it still retains — it was 
transported into other parts of the world, and infused into the veins of simple 
and unsuspecting nations. 

In order to appreciate a fact at its just value, to embrace it in all its rela- 
tions, and to distinguish properly between them, it is necessary to examine 
whether the constituting principle of the fact can be ascertained, or at least 
whether we can observe in its appearance any characteristic trait capable of 
revealing its inward nature. This examination is very difficult when we have 
to do with a fact of the kind and importance of that which now occupies our 
attention. In matters of this sort, numbers of opinions accumulate in the 
course of time, in favor of all which arguments have been sought. The in- 
quirer, in the midst of so many and such various objects, is perplexed, discon- 
certed, and confounded ; and if he wish to place himself in a more advantageous 
point of view, he finds the ground so covered with fragments, that he cannot 
make his way without risk of losing himself at every step. 

4 C 25 



26 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



The first glance which we give to Protestantism, whether we consider its 
actual condition, or whether we regard the various phases of its history, shows 
us that it is very difficult to find any thing constant in it, any thing which can 
be assigned as its constituent character. Uncertain in its opinions, it modifies 
them continually, and changes them in a thousand ways. Vague in its ten- 
dencies, and fluctuating in its desires, it attempts every form, and essays every 
road. It can never attain to a well-defined existence; and we see it every 
moment enter new paths, to lose itself in new labyrinths. 

Catholic controversialists have pursued and assailed it in everyway; ask them 
what has been the result ? They will tell you that they had to contend with a 
new Proteus, which always escaped the fatal blow by changing its form. If 
you wish to assail the doctrines of Protestantism, you do not know where to 
direct your attacks, for they are unknown to you, and even to itself. On this 
side it is invulnerable, because it has no tangible body. Thus, no more power- 
ful argument has ever been urged, than that of the immortal Bishop of Meaux 
— viz. " You change; and that which changes is not the truth." An argument 
much feared by Protestantism, and with justice; because all the various forms 
which are assumed to evade its force, only serve to strengthen it. How just 
is the expression of that great man ! At the very title of his book, Protestant- 
ism must tremble : The History of the Variations ! A history of variations 
must be a history of error. (See note at the end of the vol.) 

These unceasing changes, which we ought not to be surprised at finding in 
Protestantism, because they essentially belong to it, show us that it is not in 
possession of the truth; they show us also, that its moving principle is not a 
principle of life, but an element of dissolution. It has been called upon, and 
up to this time in vain, to fix itself, and to present a compact and uniform 
body. How can that be fixed, which is, by its nature, kept floating about in 
the air? How can a solid body be formed of an element, the essential ten- 
dency of which is towards an incessant division of particles, by diminishing 
their reciprocal affinity, and increasing their repellent force ? 

It will easily be seen that I speak of the right of private judgment in mat- 
ters of faith, whether it be looked upon as a matter of human reason alone, or 
as an individual inspiration from heaven. 

If there be any thing constant in Protestantism, it is undoubtedly the sub- 
stitution of private judgment for public and lawful authority. This is always 
found in union with it, and is, properly speaking, its fundamental principle : it 
is the only point of contact among the various Protestant sects, — the basis of 
their mutual resemblance. It is very remarkable that this exists, for the most 
part, unintentionally, and sometimes against their express wishes. 

However lamentable and disastrous this principle may be, if the coryphaei of 
Protestantism had made it their rallying point, and had constantly acted up to 
it in theory and practice, they would have been consistent in error. When 
men saw them cast into one abyss after another, they would have recognised a 
system, — false undoubtedly; but, at any rate, a system. As it is, it has not 
been even that : if you examine the words and the acts of the first Reformers, 
you will find that they made use of this principle as a means of resisting the 
authority which controlled them, but that they never dreamed of establishing 
it permanently; that if they labored to upset lawful authority, it was for the 
purpose of usurping the command themselves; that is to say, that they fol- 
lowed, in this respect, the example of revolutionists of all kinds, of all ages, 
and of all countries. Everybody knows how far Luther carried his fanatical 
intolerance ; he who could nofc bear the slightest contradiction, either from his 
own disciples or anybody else, without giving way to the most senseless fits of 
passion, and the most unworthy outrages. Henry VTTT. of England, who 
founded there what is called the liberty of thinking, sent to the scaffold those 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



27 



who did not think as he did ; and it was at the instigation of Calvin that Ser- 
vetus was burnt alive at Geneva. 

I insist upon this point, because it seems to me to be of great importance. 
Men are but too much inclined to pride; and if they heard it constantly 
repeated, without contradiction, that the innovators of the sixteenth century 
proclaimed the freedom of thought, a secret interest might be excited in their 
favor; their violent declamations might be regarded as the expressions of a 
generous movement, and their efforts as a noble attempt to assert the rights of 
intellectual freedom. Let it be known, never to be forgotten, that if these men 
proclaimed the principle of free examination, it was for the purpose of making 
use of it against legitimate authority; but that they attempted, as soon as they 
could, to impose upon others the yoke of their own opinions. Their constant 
endeavour was, to destroy the authority which came from God, in order to esta- 
lish their own upon its ruins. It is a painful necessity to be obliged to give 
proofs of this assertion ; not because they are difficult to find, but because one 
cannot adduce the most incontestable of them without calling to mind words 
and deeds which not only cover with disgrace the founders of Protestantism, 
but are of such a nature, that they cannot be mentioned without a blush on the 
cheek, or written without a stain upon the paper. (2) 

Protestantism, when viewed in a mass, appears only a shapeless collection of 
innumerable sects, all opposed to each other, and agreeing only in one point, 
viz. in protesting against the authority of the Church. We only find among 
them particular and exclusive names, commonly taken from the names of their 
founders; in vain have they made a thousand efforts to give themselves a gene- 
ral name expressive of a positive idea; they are still called after the manner 
of philosophical sects. Lutherans, Calvinists, Zuinglians, Anglicans, Socinians, 
Arminians, Anabaptists, all these names, of which I could furnish an endless 
host, only serve to exhibit the narrowness of the circle in which these sects are 
enclosed; and it is only necessary to pronounce them, to show that they con- 
tain nothing universal, nothing great. 

Everybody who knows any thing of the Christian religion must be convinced 
by this fact alone, that these sects are not truly Christian. But what occurred 
when Protestantism attempted to take a general name, is singularly remarkable. 
If you examine its history, you will see that all the names which it attempted 
to give itself failed, if they contained any positive idea, or any mark of Chris- 
tianity; but that it adopted a name taken by chance at the Diet of Spires; a 
name which carries with it its own condemnation, because it is repugnant to the 
origin, to the spirit, to the maxims, to the entire history of the Christian reli- 
gion; a name which does not express that unity — that union which is insepara- 
bly connected with the Christian name; a name which is peculiarly becoming 
to it, which all the world gives to it by acclamation, which is truly its own — 
viz. Protestantism. (3) 

Within the vast limits marked out by this name, there is room for every 
error and for every sect. You may deny with the Lutherans the liberty of 
man, or renew with the Arminians the errors of Pelagius. You may admit 
with some that real presence, which you are free to reject with the Calvinists 
and Zuinglians; you may join with the Socinians in denying the divinity of 
Jesus Christ; you may attach yourself to Episcopalians, to Puritans, or, if you 
please, to the extravagances of the Quakers; it is of no consequence, for you 
always remain a Protestant, for you protest against the authority of the 
Church ; your field is so extensive, that you can hardly escape from it, however 
great may be your wanderings ; it contains all the vast extent that we behold on 
coming forth from the gates of the Holy City. (4) 



28 



CHAPTER II. 

CAUSES OF PROTESTANTISM. 

\ 

"What, then, were the causes of the appearance of Protestantism in Europe, 
of its development, and of its success? This is a question well worthy of 
being examined to the bottom, because it will lead us to inquire into the origin 
of this great evil, and will put us in a condition to form the best idea of this 
phenomenon, so often but so imperfectly described. 

It would be unreasonable to look for the causes of an event of this nature 
and importance, in circumstances either trivial in themselves, or circumscribed 
by places and events of a limited kind. It is a mistake to suppose that vast 
results can be produced by trifling causes ; and if it be true that great events 
sometimes have their commencement in little ones, it is no less certain that the 
commencing point is not the cause ; and that to be the commencement of a 
thing, and to be its real oause, are expressions of a widely different meaning. A 
spark produces a dreadful conflagration, but it is because it falls upon a heap of 
inflammable materials. That which is general must have general causes; and 
that which is lasting and deeply rooted must have lasting and profound causes. 

This law is true alike in the moral as in the physical order; but its applica- 
tions cannot be perceived without great difficulty, especially in the moral order, 
where things of great importance are sometimes clothed in a mean exterior; 
where each effect is found allied with so many causes at once, connected with 
them by ties so delicate, that, possibly, the most attentive and piercing eye may 
miss altogether, or regard as a trifle, that which perhaps has produced very 
great results : trifling things, on the other hand, are frequently so covered with 
glitter, tinsel, and parade, that it is very easy to be deceived by them. We are 
always too much inclined to judge by appearances. 

It will appear from these principles, that I am not disposed to give great 
importance to the rivalry excited by the preaching of indulgences, or to the 
excesses which may have been committed by some inferiors in this matter; 
these things may have been an occasion, a pretext, a signal to commence the 
contest, but they were of too little importance in themselves to put the world 
in flames. There would be, perhaps, more apparent plausibility in seeking for 
the causes of Protestantism in the characters and positions of the first reformers ; 
but this also would be unsatisfactory. 

People lay great stress on the violence and fury of the writings and speeches 
of Luther, and show how apt this savage eloquence was to inflame men's minds, 
and drag them into the new errors by the deadly hatred against Rome with 
which it inspired them. Too much stress also is laid on the sophistical art, the 
order and elegance of the style of Calvin ; qualities which served to give an 
appearance of regularity to the shapeless mass of new errors, and make them 
more acceptable to men of good taste. The talents and other qualities of the 
various innovators are described in the same way with more or less truth. 

I will not deny to Luther, Calvin, and the other founders of Protestantism, 
the titles on which their sad celebrity is founded; but I venture to assert that 
we cannot attribute to their personal qualities the principal influence upon the 
development of this evil, without palpably mistaking and underrating the im- 
portance of the evil itself, and forgetting the instructions of universal history. 

If we examine these men with impartiality, we shall find that their qualities 
were not greater than those of other sectarian leaders, if so great. Their 
talents, their learning, and their knowledge, have passed through the crucible 
of criticism, and there is, even among Protestants, no well-instructed and im- 
partial person who does not now consider the extravagant eulogiums which have 
been lavished upon them, as the exaggerations of party. They are classed 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



29 



among the number of those turbulent men who are well fitted to excite revolu- 
tions; but the history of all times and countries, and the experience of every 
day, teach that men of this kind are not uncommon, and that they arise every- 
where when a sad combination of events affords them a fit opportunity. 

When causes more in proportion to Protestantism, by their extent and im- 
portance, are sought for, two are commonly pointed out : the necessity of reform, 
and the spirit of liberty. "There were numerous abuses/' says one party; 
u legitimate reform was neglected : this negligence produced revolution." " The 
human intellect was in fetters," says another; "the mind longed to break its 
chains; Protestantism was only a grand effort for the freedom of human thought, 
a great movement towards liberating the human mind." It is true, that these 
two opinions point out causes of great importance and of wide extent : both are 
well adapted to make partisans. The one, by establishing the necessity of 
reform, opens a wide field for the censure of neglected laws and relaxed morals; 
this theme always finds sympathy in the heart of man, — indulgent towards its 
own defects, but stern and inexorable towards the faults of others. With 
respect to the other opinion, which raises the cry of the movement of religious 
liberty and the freedom of the human mind, it is sure to be widely adopted : 
there are always a thousand echoes to a cry which flatters our pride. 

I do not deny that a reform was necessary ; to be convinced of this, I need 
only glance at history, and listen to the complaints of several great men, justly 
regarded by the Church as among the most cherished of her sons. I read in 
the first decree of the Council of Trent, that one of the objects of the Council 
was the reform of the Christian clergy and people; I learn from the mouth of 
Pius IV., when confirming the said Council, that one of the objects for which 
it was assembled, was the correction of morals, and the re-establishment of dis- 
cipline. Notwithstanding all this, I am not inclined to give to abuses so much 
influence as has been attributed to them. I must also say, that it appears to 
me that we give a very bad solution of the question, when, to show the real 
cause of the evil, we insist on the fatal results produced by these abuses. These 
words also, " a new movement of liberty," appear to me altogether insufficient. 
I shall say, then, with freedom, in spite of my respect for those who entertain 
the first opinion, and my esteem for the talents of those who refer all to the 
spirit of liberty, that I cannot find in either that analysis, at once philosophical 
and historical, which, without wandering from the ground of history, examines 
facts, clears them up, shows their inward nature, their relations and connections. 

If men have wandered so much in the definition and explanation of Protest- 
antism, it is because they have not sufficiently observed that it is not only a fact 
common to all ages of the history of the Church, but that its importance and 
its particular characteristics are owing to the epoch when it arose. This simple 
consideration, founded on the constant testimony of history, clears up every 
thing; we have no longer to seek in the doctrines of Protestantism for any 
thing singular or extraordinary; all its characteristics prove that it was born in 
Europe, and in the sixteenth century. I shall develope these ideas, not by 
fanciful reasonings or gratuitous suppositions, but by adducing facts which 
nobody can deny. 

It is indisputable that the principle of submission to authority in matters of 
faith has always encountered a vigorous resistance in the human mind. I shall 
not point out here the causes of this resistance; I propose to do so in the course 
of this work; I shall content myself at present with stating this fact, and 
reminding those who may be inclined to call it in question, that the history of 
the Church has always been accompanied by the history of heresies. This 
fact has presented different phases according to the changes of time and place. 
Sometimes making a rude mixture of Judaism and Christianity, sometimes 
combining the doctrines of Jesus Christ with the dreams of the East, or cor- 

c2 



30 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



rupting the purity of faith by the subtilties and chicaneries of Grecian sophistry ; 
this fact presents us with as many different aspects as there are conditions of 
the mind of man. But we always find in it two general characteristics, which 
clearly show that it has always had the same origin, notwithstanding the varia- 
tion in its object and in the nature of its results: these two characteristics 
are, hatred of the authority of the Church, and the spirit of sect. 

In all ages sects have arisen, opposing the authority of the Church, and esta- 
blishing as dogmas the errors of their founders : it was natural for the same 
thing to happen in the sixteenth century. Now, if that age had been an excep- 
tion to the general rule, it seems to me, looking at the nature of the human 
mind, that we should have had to answer this very difficult question, How is it 
possible that no sect appeared in that age ? I say, then, error having once 
arisen in the sixteenth century, no matter what may have been its origin, occa- 
sion, and pretext — a certain number of followers having assembled around its 
banner — Protestantism forthwith presents itself before me in all its extent, with 
its transcendent importance, its divisions, and subdivisions; I see it, with bold- 
ness and energy, making a general attack on all the doctrines and discipline 
taught and observed by the Church. In place of Luther, Zuinglius, and Cal- 
vin, let us suppose Arius, Nestorius, and Pelagius; in place of the errors of the 
former, let them teach the errors of the latter; it will all lead to the same 
result. The errors will excite sympathy; they will find defenders; they will 
animate enthusiasts ; they will spread, they will be propagated with the rapidity 
of fire, they will be diffused, they will throw sparks in all directions; they 
will all be defended with a show of knowledge and erudition ; creeds will change 
unceasingly; a thousand professions of faith will be drawn up; the liturgy will 
be altered, — will be destroyed ; the bonds of discipline will be broken ; we shall 
have to sum up all in one word, Protestantism. 

How did it happen that the evil in the sixteenth century was necessarily so 
extensive, so great, and so important ? It was because the society of that time 
was different from any other that had preceded it ; that which at other times 
would only have produced a partial fire, necessarily caused in the sixteenth cen- 
tury a frightful conflagration. Europe was then composed of a number of im- 
mense states, cast, so to speak, in the same mould, resembling each other in 
ideas, manners, laws and institutions, drawn together incessantly by an active 
communication which was kept up alternately by rival and common interests; 
knowledge found in the Latin language an easy means of diffusion ; in fine, 
most important of all, there had become general over all Europe a rapid means 
of disseminating ideas and feelings, a creation which had flashed from the 
human mind like a miraculous illumination, a presage of colossal destinies, 
viz. the press. 

Such is the activity of the mind of man, and the ardour with which it em- 
braces all sorts of innovation, that when once the standard of error was planted, 
a multitude of partisans were sure to rally round it. The yoke of authority 
once thrown off, in countries where investigation was so active, where so many 
discussions were carried on, where ideas were in such a state of effervescence, 
and where all the sciences began to germinate, it was impossible for the restless 
mind of man to remain fixed on any point, and a swarm of sects was neces- 
sarily produced. There is no middle path; either civilized nations must remain 
Catholic, or run through all the forms of error. If they do not attach them- 
selves firmly to the anchor of truth, we shall see them make a general attack 
upon it, we shall see them assail it in itself, in all that it teaches, in all that it 
prescribes. A man of free and active mind will remain tranquil in the peaceful 
regions of truth, or he will seek for it with restlessness and disquietude. If he 
find only false principles to rest on, — if he feel the ground move under his 
feet, he will change his position every moment, he will leap from error to error, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



31 



and precipitate himself from one abyss to another. To live amid errors, and 
be contented with them, to transmit error from generation to generation, with- 
out modification or change, is peculiar to those who vegetate in debasement and 
ignorance ; there the mind of man is not active, because it is asleep. 

From the point of view where we have now placed ourselves, we can see 
Protestantism such as it is. From this commanding position we see every thing 
in its place, and it is possible for us to appreciate its dimensions, to perceive its 
relations, calculate its influence, and explain its anomalies. Men there assume 
their true position; as they are seen in close proximity with the great mass of 
events, they appear in the picture as very small figures, for which others may 
be substituted without inconvenience; which may be placed nearer or farther 
off, and the features and complexion of which are not of any consequence. Of 
what importance, then, are the energy of character, the passion, and boldness 
of Luther, the literary polish of Melancthon, and the sophistical talents of 
Calvin ? We are convinced, that to lay stress upon all this, is to lose our time, 
and explain nothing. 

What were these men, and the other coryphaei of Protestantism ? Was there 
any thing really extraordinary about them ? We shall find men like them 
everywhere. There are some among them who did not surpass mediocrity ; and 
it may be said of almost all, that if they had not obtained an unhappy cele- 
brity, they would hardly have been celebrated at all. Why, then, did they 
effect such great things? They found a mass of combustibles, and they 
set them on fire. Certainly this was not difficult, and yet it was all they did. 
When I see Luther, mad with pride, commit those extravagances which were 
the subject of so many lamentations on the part of his friends — when I see 
him grossly insult all who oppose him, put himself in a passion, and vomit 
forth a torrent of impure words against all those who do not humble themselves 
in his presence, I am scarcely moved by any other feeling than pity. This 
man, who had the extraordinary mania of calling himself the Notharius Dei, 
became delirious; but he breathed, and his breath was followed by a terrible 
conflagration: it was because a powder-magazine was at hand on which he 
threw a spark. Nevertheless, like a man blinded by insanity, he cried out, 
" Behold my power ! I breathe, and my breath puts the world in flames !" 

But, you will ask me, what was the real influence of abuses ? If we take 
care not to leave the point of view where we now are, we shall see that they 
were an occasion, and that they sometimes afforded food, but that they did not 
exercise all the influence which has been attributed to them. Do I wish, then, 
to deny, or to excuse them ? Not at all. I can appreciate the complaints of 
some men, who are worthy of the most profound respect; but while lamenting 
the evil, these men never pretended to detail the consequences. The just man 
when he raises his voice against vice, the minister of the sanctuary when he is 
burning with zeal for the house of the Lord, express themselves in accents so 
loud and vehement, that they must not always be taken literally. Their whole 
hearts are opened, and, inflamed as they are with a zealous love of justice, they 
make use of burning words. Men without faith interpret their expressions 
maliciously, exaggerating and misrepresenting them. 

It appears to me to be clear, from what I have just shown, that the principal 
cause of Protestantism is not to be found in the abuses of the middle ages. 
All that can be said is, that they afforded opportunities and pretexts for it. 
To assert the contrary would be to maintain that there were always numerous 
abuses in the Church from the beginning, even in the time of her primitive 
fervor, and of that proverbial purity of which our opponents have said so much; 
for even then there were swarms of sects who protested against her doctrines, 
denied her divine authority, and called themselves the true Church. The case 
is the same, and the inference cannot be denied. If you allege the extent and 



82 PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 

rapid propagation of Protestantism, I will remind you that such was also the 
case with other sects; I will repeat to you the words of St. Jerome, with regard 
to the ravages of Arianism: "All the world groans, and is full of astonishment 
at finding itself Arian." I will repeat, again, that if you observe any thing 
remarkable and peculiar belonging to Protestantism, it ought not to be attributed 
to abuses, but to the epoch when it appeared. 

I believe I have said enough to give an idea of the influence which abuses 
could exert; yet, as it is a subject which has occupied much attention, and on 
which many mistakes have been made, it will be well to revert to it once more, 
to make our ideas on the subject still clearer. That lamentable abuses had 
crept in during the course of the middle ages, that the corruption of manners 
had been great, and that, consequently, reform was required, is a fact which 
cannot be denied. This fact is proved to us, with respect to the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries, by irreproachable witnesses, such as St. Peter Damien, St. 
Gregory VII., and St. Bernard. Some centuries later, even after many abuses 
had been corrected, *they were still but too considerable, as is witnessed by the 
complaints of men who were inflamed with a desire of reform. We cannot 
forget the alarming words addressed by Cardinal Julian to Pope Eugenius IV., 
on the subject of the disorders of the clergy, especially those of Germany. 

Having fully avowed the truth on this point, and my opinion that the cause 
of Catholicity does not require dissimulation or falsehood to defend it, I shall 
devote a few words to examining some important questions. Are we to blame 
the court of Rome or the bishops for these great abuses ? I venture to think 
that they were to be attributed to the evils of the time alone. Let us call to 
mind the events which had taken place in the midst of Europe; the dissolution 
of the decrepit and corrupt empire of Rome; the irruption and inundation of 
northern barbarians; their fluctuations, their wars, sometimes with each other, 
and sometimes with the conquered nations, and that for so many ages; the 
establishment and absolute reign of feudalism, with all its inconveniences, its 
evils, its troubles, and disasters; the invasion of the Saracens, and their 
dominion over a large portion of Europe; now, let any reflecting man ask him- 
self whether such revolutions must not of necessity produce ignorance, corrup- 
tion of morals, and the relaxation of all discipline. How could the ecclesiastical 
society escape being deeply affected by this dissolution, this destruction of the 
civil society ? Could she help participating in the evils of the horrible state 
of chaos into which Europe was then plunged? 

But were the spirit and ardent desire of reforming abuses ever wanting in the 
Church ? It can be shown that they were not. I will not mention the saints 
whom she did not cease to produce during these unhappy periods; history 
proves their number and their virtues, which, so vividly contrasting with the 
corruption of the age, show that the divine flames which descended on the 
Apostles had not been extinguished in the bosom of the Catholic Church. 
This fact proves much; but there is another still more remarkable, a fact less 
subject to dispute, and which we cannot be accused of exaggerating; a fact 
which is not limited to individuals, but which is, on the contrary, the most com- 
plete expression of the spirit by which the whole body of the Church was ani- 
mated ; I mean, the constant meeting of councils, in which abuses were reproved 
and condemned, and in which sanctity of morals and the observance of disci- 
pline were continually inculcated. Happily this consoling fact is indisputable ; 
it is open to every eye; and to be aware of it, one only needs to consult a 
volume of ecclesiastical history, or the proceedings of councils. There is no 
fact more worth our attention; and I will add, that perhaps all its importance 
has not been observed. 

Let us remark what passes in other societies : we see that in proportion to tho 
change of ideas and manners, laws everywhere undergo a rapid modification ; 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



33 



and if manners and ideas come to be directly opposed to laws, the latter, reduced 
to silence, are soon either abolished or trodden under foot. Nothing of this 
sort has happened in the Church. Corruption has extended itself everywhere 
to a lamentable degree j the ministers of religion have allowed themselves to be 
carried away by the stream, and have forgotten the sanctity of their vocation; 
but the sacred tire did not cease to burn in the sanctuary; the law was there 
constantly proclaimed and inculcated; and, wonderful spectacle! the men who 
themselves violated it frequently assembled to condemn themselves, to censure 
their own conduct, and thus to render more public and more palpable the con- 
trast which existed between their instructions and their actions. Simony and 
incontinence were the prevailing vices; if you open the canons of councils, 
you will find them everywhere anathematized. Nowhere do you find a struggle 
so prolonged, so constant, so persevering, of right against wrong; you always 
see, throughout so many ages, the law, opposed face to face to the irregular 
passions, maintain itself firm and immovable, without yielding a single step, 
without allowing them a moment of repose or peace until they were subjugated. 
And this constancy and tenacity of the Church were not useless. At the com- 
mencement of the sixteenth century, at the time when Protestantism appeared, 
we find abuses comparatively less numerous, morals perceptibly improved, dis- 
cipline become more strict, and observed with sufficient regularity. The time 
when Luther declaimed was not like that when St. Peter Damien and St. Ber- 
nard deplored the evils of the Church. The chaos was reduced to form; order, 
light, and regularity had made rapid progress; and an incontestable proof that 
the Church was not then plunged in such ignorance and corruption as is 
alleged, is, that she produced the great assemblage of saints who shed so much 
lustre on the age, and the men who displayed their eminent wisdom at the 
Council of Trent. Let us remember that great reforms require much time; 
that they met with much resistance both from the clergy and laity; that for 
having undertaken them with firmness, and urged them with vigour, Gregory 
VII. has been charged with rashness. Let us not judge of men without regard 
to times and places; and let us not pretend to measure every thing according 
to our own limited ideas; ages move in an immense orbit, and the variety of 
circumstances produces situations so strange and complicated that we can hardly 
form an idea of them. 

Bossuet, in his History of the Variations, after having differently classed the 
spirit which guided certain men, before the thirteenth century, in their attempts 
at reform, and having cited the threatening words of Cardinal Julian on the 
subject of abuses, adds : " It is thus that, in the fifteenth century, this cardinal, 
the greatest man of his times, deplored these evils, and foresaw their fatal 
effects; by which he seems to have predicted those that Luther was about to 
bring on all Christianity, and in the first place on Germany; and he was not 
deceived when he thought that the neglect of reformation, and the increased 
hatred against the clergy, was about to produce a sect more dangerous to the 
Church than the Bohemians." (Hist, des Variat. liv. i.) It is inferred from 
these words that the illustrious Bishop of Meaux found one of the principal 
causes of Protestantism in the omission of a legitimate reform made in time. 
Nevertheless, we must not suppose from this that Bossuet meant, in any degree, 
to excuse the promoters of it, or that he had any idea of sanctioning their 
intentions; on the contrary, he ranked them as turbulent innovators, who, far 
from promoting the real reform which was desired by wise and prudent men, 
only served to render it more difficult, by introducing, by the means of their 
erroneous doctrines, the spirit of disobedience, schism, and heresy. 

In spite of the authority of Bossuet, I cannot persuade myself to look upon 
abuses as one of the principal causes of Protestantism; but it is not necessary 
to repeat what I have said in support of this opinion. It may not, however, 
5 



34 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



be useless to repeat, that the authority of Bossuet is misapplied when used to 
justify the intentions of the reformers, since the illustrious prelate is the first 
to declare them highly culpable, and to observe, that if abuses were in exist- 
ence, their intention was not to correct them, but rather to make them a pre- 
text for abandoning the faith of the Church, throwing off the yoke of lawful 
authority, breaking the bands of discipline, and introducing thereby disorder 
and licentiousness. 

How, indeed, can we attribute to the reformers the real spirit of reform, 
when almost all of them proved the contrary by the ignominy of their own 
conduct? If they had condemned, by the austerity of their morals, or by 
devoting themselves to a severe asceticism, the relaxations of which they com- 
plained, there might be a question whether their extravagances were not the 
effects of exaggerated zeal, and if some excess in the love of virtue had not 
drawn them into error. But they did nothing of the kind. Let us hear on 
this point an eye-witness, a man who certainly cannot be accused of fanaticism, 
since the connection which he had with the leaders of Protestantism has ren- 
dered him culpable in the eyes of many. Behold what Erasmus said, with his 
usual wit and bitterness : " The reform, as far as it has gone, has been limited 
to the secularization of a few nuns and the marriage of a few priests ; and this 
great tragedy finishes with an event altogether comic, since every thing is wound 
up, as in comedies, by a marriage." 

This shows to conviction the true spirit of the innovators of the sixteenth 
century. It is clear that, far from wishing the reformation of abuses, they 
wished rather to increase them. This bare consideration of facts has led 
M. Guizot,. on this point, into the path of truth, when he rejects the opinion of 
those who pretend, that the Reformation was " an attempt conceived and exe- 
cuted simply with the intention of reconstructing a pure and primitive Church. 
The Reformation," he said, "was not a mere attempt at religious amelioration, 
>or the fruit of a Utopian humanity and virtue." (JECistoire Generate de la Civili- 
sation en Europe, douzieme lecon.) 

We shall have now no difficulty in appreciating at its just value the explana- 
tion which the same writer gives of this phenomenon. " The Reformation," 
says M. Guizot, "was a great attempt at the liberation of human thought — an 
^uprising of the mind of man." This attempt, according to M. Guizot, arose 
•out of the energetic movement given to the human mind, and the state of inac- 
tion into which the Roman Church had fallen; it arose from this, that the 
human mind advanced rapidly and impetuously, while the Church remained 
stationary. Explanations of this kind, and this one in particular, are very apt 
to draw admirers and proselytes; these ideas are high, and placed on a level 
so lofty and extended, that they cannot be looked at closely by the generality 
of readers ; and, moreover, they appear in brilliant imagery, which blinds the 
sight and prejudices the judgment. 

That which restrains freedom of thought, as understood by M. Guizot and 
other Protestants is, authority in matters of faith: it was, then, against this 
authority that the uprising of the mind declared itself; or, in other words, the 
mind rebelled, because it advanced, while the Church, immovable in her doc- 
trines, was, according to the expression of M. Guizot, " in a stationary state." 

Whatever may be the disposition of mind of M. Guizot towards the dogmas 
of the Catholic Church, he ought, as a philosopher, to have seen that it was a 
great mistake to point out as the distinctive characteristic of one period, that 
which had been at every time a glorious title for the Church. For more than 
eighteen hundred years the Church has been stationary in her dogmas, and it 
is no equivocal proof that she possesses the truth : the truth is unchangeable, 
because it is one. 

What the Church was in the sixteenth century, she had been before, and she 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



35 



has been since. She had nothing particular, she adopted no new characteristic. 
The reason, then, by which it is attempted to explain this phenomenon, viz. the 
uprising of the mind, cannot advance the explanation a single step ; and if this 
be the reason why M. Guizot compares the Church to governments grown old, 
we will tell him that she has had this old age from her cradle. M. Guizot, as if 
he had himself felt the weakness of his reasoning, presents his thoughts in 
groups, and as it were pele-mele ; he parades before his readers ideas of different 
kinds, without taking pains to classify or distinguish them; one would be 
inclined to think that he meant to distract them by variety, and confound them 
by mixture. Judging, indeed, from the context of his discourse, the epithets 
inert and stationary, which he applies to the Church, do not appear, according 
to his intention, to relate to matters of faith; and he gives us to understand 
that he speaks rather of the pretensions of the Church with regard to politics 
and state economy. He has taken pains, elsewhere, to repel as calumnies, the 
charges of tyranny and intolerance which have been so often made against the 
court of Rome. 

We find here an incoherence of ideas which was not to be expected in so 
clear a mind ; and as many persons may scarcely be inclined to believe how far 
this incoherence extends, it is necessary to' give his words literally : they will 
show us into what inconsistencies great minds can fall when they are placed in 
a false position. 

" The government of the human mind, the spiritual power," says M. Guizot, 
u had fallen into an inert and stationary condition. The political influence of 
the Church, of the court of Rome, was much diminished ; European society no 
longer was ruled by it j it had passed under the control of lay governments. 
Nevertheless, the spiritual power preserved all its pretensions, all its eclat, all 
its external importance. There happened in this respect, what has more than 
once happened to old governments. The greater part of the complaints made 
against it were hardly better founded." 

It is evident that M. G-uizot, in this passage, does not point out any thing 
which is at all connected with liberty, any thing which is not quite of another 
kind : why does he not do so ? The court of Rome, he tells us, had seen its 
political influence diminished, and yet it preserved its pretensions ; the direction 
of European society no longer belonged to it, but Rome kept its pomp and its 
external importance. Is any thing here meant besides the rivalries of which 
political affairs had been the subject ? Did M. G-uizot forget what he himself 
said some pages before, viz. that it did not appear to him to be reasonable to 
assign the rivalry of kings with the ecclesiastical power as the cause of Pro- 
testantism, and that such a cause was not adequate to the extent and importance 
of the event? 

Although all this has no direct connection with freedom of thought, still, if 
any one be inclined to attribute the uprising of the mind to the intolerance of 
the court of Rome, let him listen to M. G-uizot : "It is not true," says he, 
" that in the sixteenth century the court of Rome was very tyrannical ; that 
abuses, properly so called, were then more numerous, more crying, than they 
had been at other times ; never, perhaps, on the contrary, had the ecclesiastical 
power been more easy, more tolerant, more disposed to let things go their own 
way. Provided that it was not itself called in question, provided that the 
rights which it had formerly enjoyed were allowed in theory, that the same 
existence was secured, and the same tributes were paid to it, it would willingly 
have allowed the human mind to remain at peace, if the human mind had done 
the same in respect to it." 

Thus M. Guizot seems to have forgotten what he had urged with the view 
of showing that the Protestant Reformation was a great attempt at the libera- 
tion of human thought — a rebellion of the mind of man. He does not allege 



36 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



any thing which was an obstacle to the freedom of man's thoughts ; and hp 
himself acknowledges that there was nothing to provoke this rebellion, as, foi 
example, intolerance or cruelty; he has himself just told us that the ecclesias- 
tical government of the sixteenth century, far from being tyrannical, was easy 
and tolerant, and that, if left to itself, it would willingly have allowed the 
human mind to remain tranquil. 

It is, then, evident, that the great attempt at the liberation of the human 
mind is, in M. Gruizot' s mouth, only a vague, undefined expression, — a brilliant 
veil with which he seems to have wished to cover the cradle of Protestantism, 
even at the risk of being inconsistent with his own opinions. He reverts to 
the political rivalries which he before rejected. Abuses have no importance in 
his eyes j he cannot find in them the real cause ; and he forgets what he had 
just asserted in the preceding lecture, viz. that if necessary reform had been 
made in time, the religious revolution might have been avoided. 

He tries to give a picture of the obstacles to the liberty of thought, and 
endeavours to rise to the general considerations which embrace all the import- 
ance and influences of the human mind j but he stops at eclat, at external im- 
portance, and political rivalries ; he lowers his flight to the level of tributes 
and services. 

This incoherence of ideas, this weakness of reasoning, and forgetfulness of 
assertions previously made, will appear strange only to those who are accus- 
tomed rather to admire the high flights of talented men than to study their 
aberrations. It is true that M. Guizot was in a position in which it was very 
difficult to avoid being dazzled and deceived. If it be true that we cannot 
observe attentively what passes on the ground around us without narrowing our 
view of the horizon, — if this method leads the observer to form a collection of 
isolated facts rather than compare general maxims, it is not less certain that, by 
extending our observations over a larger space, we run the risk of many illu- 
sions. Too great generalization borders on hypothesis and fancy. The mind, 
when taking an immoderate flight in order to get a general view of things, no 
longer sees them as they really are j perhaps sometimes even loses sight of them 
altogether. Therefore it is that the loftiest minds should frequently remember 
the words of Bacon : " We do not want wings, but lead." Too impartial not 
to confess that abuses had been exaggerated, — too good a philosopher not to see 
that they could not have had so great an effect, — M. Gruizot, who was pre- 
vented by his sense of dignity and decency from joining the crowd who inces- 
santly raise the cry of cruelty and intolerance, has made an effort to do justice 
to the Church of Rome; but, unfortunately, his prejudices against the Church 
would not allow him to see things in their true light. He was aware that the 
origin of Protestantism must be sought in the human mind itself ; but, knowing 
the age and epoch when he was speaking, he thought it was necessary to propitiate 
his audience by frequent appeals to liberty, in order that his discourse might 
be well received. This is the reason why, after having tempered the bitterness 
of his reproaches against the Church by a few soft words, he reserves all that 
is noble, grand, and generous for the ideas which produced the Reformation, 
and throws on the Church all the shadows of the picture. 

While acknowledging that the principal cause of Protestantism is to be found 
in the human mind, it is easy to abstain from these unjust comparisons; and 
M. Gruizot might have avoided the inconsistency to which we have alluded. 
He might have discovered the origin of the fact in the character of the human 
mind ; he might, at the same time, have shown the greatness and importance 
of it, while simply explaining the nature and position of the societies in which 
it appeared. In fine, he might have observed that it was no extraordinary 
effort, but a mere repetition of what has happened in every age ; and a pheno- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



37 



menon, the character of which depended on the particular state of the atmo- 
sphere in which it was produced. 

This way of considering Protestantism as an ordinary event, increased and 
developed by the circumstances in which it arose, appears to me to be as philo- 
sophical as it is little attended to. I shall support it by another observation, 
which will supply us with reasons and examples at the same time. 

The state of modern society for three hundred years has been such, that all 
the events that have occurred have acquired a character of generalization, and 
consequently an importance, which distinguishes them from all the events of a 
similar kind which occurred at other times and in a different social state. If 
we examine the history of antiquity, we shall see that all the events therein 
occurring were isolated in some sort from each other ; this was what rendered 
them less beneficial when they were good, and less injurious when they were 
bad. Carthage, Rome, Sparta, Athens, all these nations more or less advanced 
in the career of civilization, each followed its own path, and progressed in a 
different way. Ideas, manners, political constitutions, succeeded each other, 
without our being able to perceive any influence of the ideas of one nation on 
those of another, or of the manners of one nation on those of another j we do 
not find any evidence of' a tendency to bring nations to one common centre. 

We also remark that, except when forced to intermix, ancient nations could 
be a long time in close proximity without losing their peculiarities, or suffering 
any important change by the contact. 

Observe how different is the state of things in Europe in modern times. A 
revolution in one country affects all others \ an idea sent forth from the schools 
agitates nations and alarms governments. Nothing is isolated, every thing is 
general, and acquires by expansion a terrible force. It is impossible to study 
the history of one nation without seeing all the others make their appearance 
on the stage ; and we cannot study the history of a science or an art without 
discovering a thousand connections with objects which do not belong to science 
or to art. 

All nations are connected, objects are assimilated, relations increase. The 
affairs of one nation are interesting to all the others, and they wish to take part 
in them. This is the reason why the idea of non-intervention in politics is, and 
always will be, impracticable ; it is, indeed, natural for us to interfere in that 
in which we are interested. 

These examples, although taken from things of a different kind, appear to 
me very well calculated to illustrate my idea of the religious events of that 
period. Protestantism, it is true, is thereby stripped of the philosophic man- 
tle by which it has been covered from its infancy j it loses all right to be con- 
sidered as full of foresight, magnificent projects, and high destinies, from its 
cradle ; but I do not see that its importance and extent are thereby diminished; 
the fact itself, in a word, is unimpaired, but the real cause of the imposing 
aspect in which it has presented itself to the world is explained. 

Every thing, in this point of view, is seen in its just dimensions; indivi- 
duals are scarcely perceived, and abuses appear only what they really are — 
opportunities and pretexts ; vast plans, lofty and generous ideas, and efforts at 
independence of mind, are only gratuitous suppositions. Thence ambition, war, 
the rivalry of kings, take their position as causes more or less influential, but 
always in the second rank. All the causes are estimated at their real value ) 
in fine, the principal causes being once pointed out, it is acknowledged that the 
fact was sure to be accompanied in its development by a multitude of subordi- 
nate agents. There remains still an important question in this matter, viz. 
what was the cause of the hatred, or rather the feeling of exasperation, on the 
part of sectarians against Rome ? Was it owing to some great abuse, some 
great wrong on the part of Rome ? There is but one answer to make, viz. that 

D 



38 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



in a storm, the waves always dash with fury against the immovable rock which 
resists them. 

So far from attributing to abuses all the influence which has been assigned 
to them on the birth and development of Protestantism, I am convinced, on 
the contrary, that all imaginable legitimate reforms, and the greatest degree of 
willingness on the part of the Church authorities to comply with every exigence, 
would not have been able to prevent that unhappy event. 

He has paid little attention to the extreme inconstancy and fickleness of the 
human mind, and studied its history to little purpose, who does not recognise 
in the event of the sixteenth century one of those great calamities which God 
alone can avert by a special intervention of his providence. (5) 



CHAPTER III. 

EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENON IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

The proposition contained in the concluding lines of the last chapter sug- 
gests a corollary, which, if I am not mistaken, offers a new demonstration of 
the divine origin of the Catholic Church. Her existence for eighteen centuries, 
in spite of so many powerful adversaries, has always been regarded as a most 
extraordinary thing. Another prodigy, too little attended to, and of not less 
importance when the nature of the human mind is taken into account, is, the 
unity of the Church's doctrines, pervading, as it does, all her various instruc- 
tions, and the number of great minds which this unity has always enclosed within 
her bosom. 

I particularly call the attention of all thinking men to this point; and 
although I cannot hope to develope this idea in a suitable manner, I am sure 
they will find in it matter for very serious reflection. This method of consi- 
dering the Church may perhaps recommend itself to the taste of some readers 
on another account, viz. because I shall lay aside Revelation, in order to con- 
sider Catholicity, not as a Divine religion, but as a school of philosophy. 

No one who has studied the history of letters can deny that the Church has, 
in all ages, possessed men illustrious for science. The history of the Fathers 
of the first ages of the Church is nothing but the history of the most learned 
men in Europe, in Africa, and in Asia; the list of learned men who preserved, 
after the irruption of the Barbarians, some remains of ancient knowledge, is 
composed of churchmen. In modern times you cannot point out a branch of 
human knowledge, in which a considerable number of Catholics have not 
figured in the first rank. Thus there has been, for eighteen hundred years, an 
uninterrupted chain of learned men, who were Catholics, that is, men united in 
the profession of the doctrines taught by the Catholic Church. Let us lay 
aside for a moment the divine characteristics of Catholicity, to consider it only 
as a school or sect; I say, that in the fact which I have pointed out, we find a 
phenomenon so extraordinary, that its equal cannot be found elsewhere, and 
that no effort of reason can explain it, according to the natural order of human 
things. 

It is certainly not new in the history of the human mind for a doctrine, more 
or less reasonable, to be professed for a time by a certain number of learned and 
enlightened men; this has been shown in schools of philosophy both ancient 
and modern. But for a creed to maintain itself for many ages, by preserving 
the adhesion of men of learning of all times and of all countries — of minds 
differing among themselves on other points — of men opposed in interests and 
divided by rivalries, is a phenomenon new, unique, and not to be found any- 
where but in the Catholic Church. It always has been, and still is, the practice 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



39 



of the Church, while one in faith and doctrine, to teach unceasingly — to excite 
discussion on all subjects — to promote the study and examination of the foun- 
dations on which faith itself reposes — to scrutinize for this purpose the ancient 
languages, the monuments of the remotest times, the documents of history, the 
discoveries of scientific observation, the lessons of the highest and most analytic 
sciences, and to present herself with a generous confidence in the great lyceums, 
where men replete with talents and knowledge concentrate, as in a focus, all 
that they have learned from their predecessors, and all that they themselves 
have collected : and nevertheless we see her always persevere with firmness in 
her faith and in the unity of her doctrines; we see her always surrounded by 
illustrious men, who, with their brows crowned with the laurels of a hundred 
literary contests, humble themselves, tranquil and serene, before her, without 
fear of dimming the brightness of the glory which surrounds their heads. 

We ask those who see in Catholicity only one of the innumerable sects by 
which the earth has been covered, to point out elsewhere a similar fact; to 
explain to us how the Church has been able to show us a phenomenon, con- 
stantly existing, so opposed to the ever-varying spirit of the human mind ; let 
them tell us by what secret talisman the Sovereign Pontiffs have been able to 
do what other men have found impossible. Those men, who bowed their heads 
at the command of the Vatican, who have laid aside their own opinions to 
adopt those of a man called the Pope, were not simple and ignorant men. 
Look at them attentively; you will see in the boldness of their mien their 
knowledge of their own intellectual power ; you will read in their bright and 
penetrating eyes the flame of genius which burns in their breasts. They are 
the same men who have filled the highest places in the academies of Europe ; 
who have spread their fame over the world, and whose names have been handed 
down to future generations. Examine the history of all ages, search all the 
countries of the world, and if you find anywhere such an extraordinary combi- 
nation of knowledge in union with faith, of genius in submission to authority, 
and of discussion without breach of unity, you will have made an important 
discovery, and science will have to explain a new phenomenon. But you know 
well that you cannot do so. This is the reason why you have recourse to new 
stratagems in order to cast a shade on the brightness of this fact; for you feel 
that impartial reason and common sense must draw from it the conclusion that 
there is in the Catholic Church something which is not to be found elsewhere. 

These facts, say our adversaries, are certain ; the reflections which they sug- 
gest are dazzling at first sight; but if we examine the subject thoroughly, we 
shall see the difficulties they raise disappear. This phenomenon, which we 
have seen realized in the Catholic Church, and which is not found elsewhere, 
only proves that there has always been in the Church a fixed system, which has 
been developed with uniform regularity. The Church knew that union is the 
source of strength; that union cannot exist without unity of doctrine; and 
that unity cannot be preserved without submission to authority. This simple 
observation established, and constantly maintained, the principle of submission. 
Such is the explanation of the phenomenon. The idea, we grant, is profoundly 
wise, the scheme is grand, the system is extraordinary; but they do not prove 
any thing in favor of the Divine origin of Catholicism. 

This is the best reply which they can make ; it is easy to show that the diffi- 
culty remains entire. Indeed, if it be true that there has existed a society on 
earth which has been for eighteen centuries guided by one fixed and constant 
principle — a society which has known how to bind to this principle eminent 
men of all ages and countries, the following questions must be asked of our 
adversaries : — Why has the Church alone possessed this principle, and monopo- 
lized this idea ? If other sects have been in possession of it, why have they 
not acted on it ? All the philosophic sects have disappeared, one after another; 



40 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the Church alone remains. Other religions, in order to preserve some sort of 
unity, have been compelled to shun the light, to avoid discussion, to hide them- 
selves in the thickest shades. Why has the Church preserved her unity while 
seeking the light, while publishing her books in open day, while lavishing all 
sorts of instruction, and founding everywhere colleges, universities, and esta- 
blishments of every description, where all the splendor of knowledge and 
erudition has been concentrated ? 

It is not enough to say that there was a plan — a system ; the difficulty lies 
in the existence of this plan and this system ; it consists in explaining how 
they were conceived and executed. If we had to do with a small number of 
men, in limited circumstances, times, and countries, for the execution of a 
limited project, there would be nothing extraordinary; but we have to do with 
a period of eighteen hundred years, with all the countries of the world, with 
circumstances the most varied, the most different, and the most opposed to each 
other ; we have to do with a multitude of men who did not meet together, or 
act in concert. How is all this to be explained? If it were a plan and a 
system devised by man, we should ask, What was the mysterious power of 
Rome which enabled her to unite around her so many illustrious men of all 
times and of all countries ? How did the Roman Pontiff, if he be only the 
chief of a sect, manage to fascinate the world to this extent ? What magician 
ever did such wonders ? Men have long declaimed against his religious despot- 
ism ; why has no one been found to wrest the sceptre from his grasp ? why has 
not a pontifical throne been raised capable of disputing the pre-eminence with 
his, and of maintaining itself with equal splendor and power? Shall we 
attribute it to his temporal power ? This power is very limited. Rome was 
not able to contend in arms with any of the other European powers. Shall we 
attribute it to the peculiar character, to the knowledge or the virtues of the 
men who have occupied the Papal throne ? There has been, during these 
eighteen hundred years, an infinite variety in the characters and in the talents 
and virtues of the Popes. For those who are not Catholics, who do not see in 
the Roman Pontiff" the vicar of Jesus Christ, — the rock on which He has built 
His Church, — the duration of this authority must be the most extraordinary 
phenomenon; and it is certainly one of the questions most worthy of being 
examined by the science which devotes itself to the history of the human 
mind ; how there existed for many centuries an uninterrupted series of learned 
men, always faithful to the doctrines of the Roman See ? 

M. G-uizot himself, in comparing Protestantism with the Roman Church, 
seems to have felt the force of this truth ; and its light appears to have made 
him confused in his remarks. Let us listen again to this writer, whose talents 
and renown have dazzled, on this point, so many readers, who do not examine 
the solidity of proofs when they are clothed in brilliant images, and who 
applaud all kinds of ideas when they are conveyed to them in a torrent of en- 
chanting eloquence; men who, pretending to intellectual independence, sub- 
scribe, without inquiry, to the decisions of the leaders of their school; who 
receive their doctrines with submission, and dare not even raise their heads to 
ask for the titles of their authority. M. Guizot, like all the great men among 
Protestants, was aware of the immense void which exists amid its various sects, 
and of the force and vigour which is contained in Catholicity ; he has not been 
able to free himself from the rule of great minds, — a rule which is explicitly 
confirmed by the writings of the greatest men of the Reformation. After 
pointing out the inconstant progress of Protestantism, and the error which it 
has introduced into the organization of intellectual society, M. Gruizot proceeds 
thus : u People have not known how to reconcile the rights and necessities of 
tradition with those of liberty; and the cause of it undoubtedly has been, that 
the Reformation did not fully understand and accept either its principles or its 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



41 



effects." What sort of a religion must that be which does not fully understand 
and accept its principles or its effects ? 

Did a more formal condemnation of the Reformation ever issue out of the 
mouth of man ? could any thing of the kind ever be said of the sects of phi- 
losophers, ancient or modern ? Can the Reformation, then, after this, pretend 
to direct men or society? "Thence arises/' continues M. Gruizot, "a certain 
air of inconsistency and narrowness of spirit, which has often given advantages 
over it to its opponents. The latter knew very well what they did and what 
they wished ; they ascended to the principles of their conduct, and avowed all 
their consequences. There never was a government more consistent, more sys- 
tematic than that of the Church of Rome." But whence was the origin of a 
system so consistent ? When we consider the fickleness and inconstancy of the 
human mind, do not this system, this consistency, and these fixed principles, 
speak volumes to the philosopher and man of good sense ? 

We have observed those terrible elements of dissolution which have theii 
source in the mind of man, and which have acquired so much force in modern 
society ; we have seen with what fatal power they destroy and annihilate all 
institutions, social, political, and religious, without ever succeeding in making a 
breach in the doctrines of Catholicity, — without altering that system, so fixed 
and so consistent. Is there no conclusion to be drawn from all this in favour 
of Catholicity ? To say that the Church has done that which no schools, or 
governments, or societies, or religions could do, is it not to confess that she is 
wiser than every thing human ? And does it not clearly prove that she does 
not owe her origin to human thought, and that she is derived from the bosom 
of the Creator? This society — formed, you say, by men — this government, 
directed by men, has endured for eighteen hundred years ; it extends to all 
countries, it addresses the savage' in the forest, the barbarian in his tent, the 
civilized man in the most populous cities; it reckons among its children the 
shepherd clothed in skins, the laborer, the powerful nobleman; it makes its 
laws heard alike by the simple mechanic at his work, and the man of learning 
in his closet absorbed in the profoundest speculations. This government has 
always had, according to M. Guizot, a full knowledge of its actions and its 
wishes; it has always been consistent in its conduct. Is not this avowal its 
mo3t convincing apology, its most eloquent panegyric ; and shall it not be con- 
sidered a proof that it contains within itself something more than human ? 

A thousand times have I beheld this prodigy with astonishment ; a thousand 
times have my eyes been fixed upon that immense tree which extends its 
branches from east to west, from north to south ; I see beneath its shade a mul- 
titude of different nations, and the restless genius of man reposing in tranquil- 
lity at its feet. 

In the East, at the period when this divine religion first appeared, I see, 
amidst the dissolutions of all sects, the most illustrious philosophers crowd to 
hear her words. In Greece, in Asia, on the banks of the Nile, in all the coun- 
tries where, a short time before, swarmed innumerable sects, I see appear on a 
sudden a generation of great men, abounding in learning, in knowledge, in 
eloquence, and all agreeing in the unity of Catholic doctrine. 

In the West, a multitude of barbarians throw themselves on an empire fall- 
ing to decay ; a dark cloud descends upon an horizon charged with calamities 
and disasters ; there, in the midst of a people submerged in the corruption of 
morals, and having lost even the remembrance of their ancient grandeur, I see 
the only men who can be called worthy heirs of the Roman name, seek, in the 
retirement of their temples, an asylum for the austerity of their morals ; it is 
there that they preserve, increase, and enrich the treasure of ancient knowledge. 
But my admiration reaches its height, when I observe that sublime intellect, 
worthy heir of the genius of Plato, which, after having sought the truth in all 



42 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the schools, in all the sects, and with indomitable boldness run through all 
human errors, feels itself subjugated by the authority of the Church, and trans- 
forms the freethinker into the great Bishop of Hippo. In modern times the 
series of great men who shone in the times of Leo X. and Louis XIV. passes 
before my eyes. I see the illustrious race still continue throughout the calami- 
ties of the eighteenth century • and in the nineteenth I see fresh heroes, who, 
after having followed error in all directions, come to hang their trophies at 
the gates of the Catholic Church. What, then, is this prodigy ? Has a sect 
or religion like it ever before been seen ? These men study every thing, dis- 
pute on every thing, reply to every thing, know every thing j but always agree- 
ing in unity of doctrine, they bend their noble and intellectual brows in 
respectful obedience to faith. Do we not seem to behold another planetary 
system, where globes of fire revolve in their vast orbits in the midst of immen- 
sity, always drawn to their centre by a mysterious attraction ? That central 
force, which allows no aberration, takes from them nothing of their extent, or 
of the grandeur of their movement j but it inundates them with light, while 
giving to their motion a more majestic regularity. (6) 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROTESTANTISM AND THE MIND.' 

This fixedness of idea, this unanimity of will, this wisdom and constancy of 
plan, this progress with a firm step towards a definite object and end ; and, in 
fine, this admirable unity, acknowledged in favor of Catholicism by M. Guizot 
himself, have not been imitated by Protestantism, either in good or evil. Pro- 
testantism, indeed, has not a single idea, of which it can say : " This is my 
own." It has attempted to appropriate to itself the principle of private judg- 
ment in matters of faith ; and if several of its opponents have been too willing 
to accord it, it was because they were unable to find therein any other consti- 
tutive element ) it was also because they felt that Protestantism, in boasting of 
having given birth to such a principle, labored to throw disgrace on itself, like 
a father who boasts of having unworthy and depraved sons. It is false, how- 
ever, that Protestantism produced this principle of private judgment, since it 
was itself the offspring of that principle. That principle, before the Reforma- 
tion, was formed in the bosom of all sects ; it is the real germ of all errors ; in 
proclaiming it, Protestants only yielded to a necessity which is common to all 
the sects separated from the Church. 

There was therein no plan, no foresight, no system. The mere resistance to 
the authority of the Church included the necessity of unlimited private judg- 
ment, and the establishment of the understanding as supreme judge ; even had 
the coryphaei of Protestantism wished from the first to oppose the consequences 
and applications of this right, the barrier was broken, and the torrent could 
not have been confined. 

" The right of examining what we ought to believe," says a celebrated Pro- 
testant, (Germany, by Mad. de Stael, part iv. chap. 2), " is the foundation of 
Protestantism. The first Reformers did not think thus ; they thought themselves 
able to place the pillars of Hercules of the mind according to their own lights ; 
but they were mistaken in hoping to make those who had rejected all authority 
of this kind in the Catholic religion submit to their decisions as infallible." 
This resistance on their part proves, that they were not led by any of those 
ideas, which, although erroneous, show, in some measure, nobleness and gene- 
rosity of heart; and that it is not of them that the human mind can say: 
u They have erred, but it was in order to give me more liberty of action." 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



43 



u The religious revolution of the sixteenth century/' says M. G-uizot, " did not 
understand the true principles of intellectual liberty ; it liberated the human 
mind, and yet pretended to govern it by law." 

But it is in vain for man to struggle against the nature of things : Protest- 
antism endeavored, without success, to limit the right of private judgment. It 
raised its voice against it, and sometimes appeared to attempt its total destruc- 
tion ; but the right of private judgment, which was in its own bosom, remained 
there, developed itself, and acted there in spite of it. There was no middle 
course for Protestantism to adopt : it was compelled either to throw itself into 
the arms of authority, and thus acknowledge itself in the wrong, or else allow 
the dissolving principle to exert so much influence on its various sects, as to 
destroy even the shadow of the religion of Jesus Christ, and debase Christianity 
to the rank of a school of philosophy. 

The cry of resistance to the authority of the Church once raised, the fatal 
results might be easily imagined; it was thus easy to foresee that that poisoned 
germ, in its development, must cause the ruin of all the Christian truths; and 
what could prevent its rapid development in a soil where fermentation was so 
active ? Catholics were not wanting to proclaim loudly the greatness and im- 
minence of the danger; and it must be allowed that many Protestants foresaw 
it clearly. No one is ignorant that the most distinguished men of the sect 
gave their opinions on this point, even from the beginning. Men of the greatest 
talent never found themselves at ease in Protestantism. They always felt that 
there was an immense void in it; this is the reason why they have constantly 
inclined either towards irreligion or towards Catholic unity. 

Time, the best judge of opinions, has confirmed these melancholy prognos- 
tics. Things have now reached such a pass, that those only who are very ill 
instructed, or who have a very limited grasp of mind, can fail to see that the 
Christian religion, as explained by Protestants, is nothing more than an opinion 
— a system made up of a thousand incoherent parts, and which is degraded to 
the level of the schools of philosophy. If Christianity still seems to surpass 
these schools in some respects, and preserves some features which cannot be 
found in what is the pure invention of the mind of man, it ought not to be a 
matter of astonishment. It is owing to that sublimity of doctrine and that 
sanctity of morality which, more or less disfigured, always shines while a trace 
is preserved of the words of Jesus Christ. But the feeble light which strug- 
gles with darkness after the sun has sunk below the horizon, cannot be com- 
pared to that of day: darkness advances and spreads; it extinguishes the expir- 
ing reflection, and night comes on. Such is the doctrine of Christianity among 
Protestants. A glance at these sects shows us that they are not purely philo- 
sophical, but it shows us at the same time that they have not the characters of 
true religion. Christianity has no authority therein; and is there like a being 
out of its proper element, — a tree deprived of its roots : its face is pale and 
disfigured like that of a corpse. Protestantism talks of faith, and its funda- 
mental principle destroys it; it endeavors to exalt the gospel, and its own prin- 
ciple, by subjecting that gospel to private judgment, weakens its authority. If 
it speak of the sanctity and purity of Christian morality, it is reminded that 
some of its dissenting sects deny the divinity of Jesus Christ; and that they 
all may do so according to the principle on which it rests. The Divinity of 
Jesus Christ once doubted, the God-made man is reduced to the rank of a great 
philosopher and legislator ; He has no longer the authority necessary to give to 
His laws the august sanction which renders them so holy in the eyes of men; 
He can no longer imprint upon them the seal which raises them above all hu- 
man thoughts, and His sublime instructions cease to be lessons flowing from 
the lips of uncreated Wisdom. 

If you deprive the human mind of the support of authority of some kind or 



44 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



other, on what can it depend? Abandoned to its own delirious dreams, it is 
forced again into the gloomy paths which led the philosophers of the ancient 
schools to chaos. Reason and experience are here agreed. If you substitute 
the private judgment of Protestants for the authority of the Church, all the 
great questions respecting Grod and man remain without solution. All the dif- 
ficulties are left; the mind is in darkness, and seeks in vain for a light to guide 
it in safety : stunned by the voices of a hundred schools, who dispute without 
being able to throw any light on the subject, it relapses into that state of dis- 
couragement and prostration in which Christianity found it, and from which, 
with so much exertion, she had withdrawn it. Doubt, pyrrhonism, and indif- 
ference become the lot of the greatest minds ; vain theories, hypothetical sys- 
tems, and dreams take possession of men of more moderate abilities ; the igno- 
rant are reduced to superstitions and absurdities. 

Of what use, then, would Christianity have been on the earth, and what 
would have been the progress of humanity? Happily for the human race, the 
Christian religion was not abandoned to the whirlwind of Protestant sects. In 
Catholic authority she has found ample means of resisting the attacks of sophis- 
try and error. What would have become of her without it ? Would the subli- 
mity of her doctrines, the wisdom of her precepts, the unction of her counsels, 
have been now any thing more than a beautiful dream, related in enchanting 
language by a great philosopher? Yes, I must repeat, without the authority 
of the Church there is no security for faith j the divinity of J esus Christ be- 
comes a matter of doubt j His mission is disputed ; in fact, the Christian reli- 
gion disappears. If she cannot show us her heavenly titles, give us full cer- 
tainty that she has come from the bosom of the Eternal, that her words are 
those of God Himself, and that He has condescended to appear on earth for the 
salvation of men, she has then lost her right to demand our veneration. Re- 
duced to the level of human ideas, she must, then, submit to our judgment like 
other mere opinions ; at the tribunal of philosophy she may endeavor to main- 
tain her doctrines as more or less reasonable ; but she will always be liable to 
the reproach of having wished to deceive us, by passing herself off as divine 
when she was only human ; and in all discussions on the truth of her doctrines, 
she will have this fatal presumption against her, viz. that the account of her 
origin was an imposture. 

Protestants boast of their independence of mind, and reproach the Catholic 
religion with violating the most sacred rights, by demanding a submission which 
outrages the dignity of man. Here extravagant declamation about the strength 
of our understanding is introduced with good effect ; and a few seductive images 
and expressions, such as "bold flights" and (l glittering wings," &c, are enough 
to delude many readers. 

Let the human mind enjoy all its rights ; let it boast of possessing that spark 
of divinity called the intellect ; let it pass over all nature in triumph, observing 
all the beings by which it is surrounded, and congratulate itself on its own im- 
mense superiority, in the midst of the wonders with which it has known how to 
embellish its abode; let it point out, as proofs of its strength and grandeur, the 
changes which are everywhere worked by its presence ; by its intellectual force 
and boldness it has acquired the complete mastery over nature. Let us acknow- 
ledge the dignity and elevation of our minds to show our gratitude to our Crea- 
tor, but let us not forget our weakness and defects. Why should we deceive 
ourselves by fancying that we know what we are really ignorant of ? Why for- 
get the inconstancy and variableness of our minds, and conceal the fact, that 
with respect to many things, even of those with which we are supposed to be 
acquainted, we have but confused ideas? How delusive is our knowledge, and 
what exaggerated notions we have of our progress in information ? Does not 
one day contradict what another had affirmed ? Time runs its course, laughs 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



45 



at our predictions, destroys our plans, and clearly shows how vain are our 
projects. 

What have those geniuses who have descended to the foundations of science, 
and risen by the boldest nights to the loftiest speculations, told us ? After 
having reached the utmost limits of the space which it is permitted to the hu- 
man mind to range over, — after having trodden the most secret paths of science, 
and sailed on the vast ocean of moral and physical nature, the greatest minds 
of all ages have returned dissatisfied with the results. They have seen a beau- 
tiful illusion appear before their eyes, — the brilliant image which enchanted 
them has vanished ; when they thought they were about to enter a region of 
light, they have found themselves surrounded with darkness, and they have 
viewed with affright the extent of their ignorance. It is for this reason that 
the greatest minds have so little confidence in the strength of the human intel- 
lect, although they cannot but be fully aware that they are superior to other 
men. The sciences, in the profound observation of Pascal, have two extremes 
which meet each other : the first is, the pure natural state of ignorance in which 
men are at their birth ) the other extreme is, that at which great minds arrive 
when, having reached the utmost extent of human knowledge, they find that 
they know nothing, and that they are still in the same state of ignorance as at 
first. (Pensees, 1 partie, art. 6.) 

Catholicism says to man, " Thy intellect is weak, thou hast need of a guide 
in many things.'' Protestantism says to him, " Thou art surrounded by light, 
walk as thou wilt ; thou canst not have a better guide than thyself." Which 
of the two religions is most in accordance with the lessons of the highest phi- 
losophy? 

It is not, therefore, surprising that the greatest minds among Protestants have 
all felt a certain tendency towards Catholicism, and have seen the wisdom of 
subjecting the human mind, in some things, to the decision of an infallible au- 
thority. Indeed, if an authority can be found uniting in its origin, its dura- 
tion, its doctrines, and its conduct, all the characteristics of divinity, why should 
the mind refuse to submit to her ; and what has it to gain by wandering, at the 
mercy of its illusions, on the most serious subjects, in paths where it only meets 
with recollections of errors, with warnings and delusions ? 

If the human mind has conceived too great an esteem for itself, let it study 
its own history, in order to see and understand how little security is to be found 
in its own strength. Abounding in systems, inexhaustible in subtilties; as 
ready in conceiving a project as incapable of maintaining it; full of ideas which 
arise, agitate, and destroy each other, like the insects which abound in lakes ; 
now raising itself on the wings of sublime inspiration, and now creeping like a 
reptile on the face of the earth ; as able and willing to destroy the works of 
others, as it is impotent to construct any durable ones of its own ; urged on 
by the violence of passion, swollen with pride, confounded by the infinite 
variety of objects which present themselves to it ; confused by so many false 
lights and so many deceptive appearances, the human mind, when left entirely 
to itself, resembles those brilliant meteors which dart at random through the 
immensity of the heavens, assume a thousand eccentric forms, send forth a 
thousand sparks, dazzle for a moment by their fantastic splendour, and disappear 
without leaving even a reflected light to illuminate the darkness. 

Behold the history of man's knowledge ! In that immense and confused 
heap of truth, error, sublimity, absurdity, wisdom, and folly, are collected the 
proofs of my assertions, and to that do I refer any one who may be inclined to 
accuse me of having overcharged the picture. (7) 



46 



CHAPTER V. 

INSTINCT OF FAITH IN THE SCIENCES. 

The truth of what I have just advanced with respect to the weakness of our 
intellect, is proved by the fact that the hand of God has placed at the bottom 
of our souls a preservative against the excessive changeability of our minds, 
even in things which do not regard religion. Without this preservative all 
social institutions would be destroyed, or rather never would have had exist- 
ence ; without it the sciences would not have advanced a step, and when it had 
disappeared from the human heart, individuals and society would have been 
swallowed up by chaos. I allude to a certain tendency to defer to authority — 
to the instinct of faith, if I may so call it — an instinct which we ought to exa- 
mine with great attention, if we wish to know any thing of the human mind, 
and the history of its development. 

It has often been observed that it is impossible to comply with the most 
urgent necessities, or perform the most ordinary acts of life, without respecting 
the authority of the statement of others ; it is easy to understand that, without 
this faith, all the treasures of history and experience would soon be dissipated, 
and that even the foundation of all knowledge would disappear. 

These important observations are calculated to show how vain is the charge 
against the Catholic religion, of requiring nothing but faith ; but this is not my 
only object here; I wish to present the matter under another aspect, and place 
the question in such a position as to make this truth gain in extent and interest, 
without losing any thing of its immovable firmness. In looking over the his- 
tory of human knowledge, and glancing at the opinions of our contemporaries, 
we constantly observe that the men who boast the most of their spirit of in- 
quiry and freedom of thought, only echo the opinions of others. If we examine 
with attention that great study which, under the name of science, has made so 
much noise in the world, we shall observe that it contains at bottom a large 
portion of authority; and that if a perfectly free spirit of inquiry were to be 
introduced into it, even with respect to points of pure reason, the greatest part 
of the edifice of science would be destroyed, and very few men would remain 
in possession of its secrets. 

No branch of knowledge, whatever may be the clearness and exactitude of 
which it boasts, is an exception to this rule. Do not the natural - and exact 
sciences, rich as they are in evident principles, rigorous in their deductions, 
abounding in observation and experience, depend, nevertheless, for a great many 
of their truths, upon other truths of a higher nature ; the knowledge of which 
necessarily requires a delicacy of observation, a power of calculation, a clear 
and penetrating coup d'oeil, which belongs to few? 

When Newton proclaimed to the scientific world the fruit of his profound 
calculations, how many of his disciples could flatter themselves that they were 
able to confirm them by their own convictions ? I do not except from this 
question many of those who, by laborious efforts, had been able to comprehend 
something of this great man ; they had followed the mathematician in his cal- 
culations, they had a full knowledge of the mass of facts and experience which 
the naturalist exposed to their view; they had listened to the reasons on which 
the philosopher rested his conjectures ; in this way they thought that they were 
fully convinced, and that they did not owe their assent to any thing but the 
force of reason and evidence. Well, take away the name of Newton, efface 
from the mind the profound impression made by the authority of the man who 
made so extraordinary a discovery, and has employed so much genius in sup- 
porting it, — take away, I repeat it, the shade of Newton, and you will directly 
see, in the minds of his disciples, their principles vacillate, their reasonings be- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



47 



come less convincing and exact, and their observations appear less in accordance 
with the facts. Then, he who thought himself a perfectly impartial observer, 
a perfectly independent thinker, will see and understand to how great an extent 
he was enthralled by the force of authority, by the ascendency of genius; he 
will find that, on a variety of points, he asserited without being convinced; and 
that, instead of being a perfectly independent philosopher, he was only an obe- 
dient and accomplished pupil. » 

I appeal with confidence to the testimony, not of the ignorant, not of those 
who have only a smattering of scientific knowledge, but of real men of learn- 
ing, of those who have devoted much time to the various branches of study. 
Let them look into their own minds, let them examine anew what they call their 
scientific convictions, let them ask themselves, with perfect calmness and impar- 
tiality, whether, even on those subjects in which they consider themselves the 
most advanced, their minds are not frequently controlled by the ascendency of 
some author of the first rank. I believe they will be compelled to acknowledge 
that, if they strictly applied the method of Descartes even to some of the ques- 
tions which they have studied the most, they would find that they believe rather 
than are convinced. Such always has been, and such always will be, the case. 
It is a thing deeply rooted in the nature of our minds, and it cannot be pre- 
vented. Perhaps the regulation is a matter of absolute necessity; perhaps it 
contains much of that instinct of preservation which G-od, with so much wis- 
dom, has diffused throughout society ; perhaps it is intended to counteract the 
many elements of dissolution which society contains within its bosom. Un- 
doubtedly, it is often very much to be regretted that men servilely follow in the 
footsteps of others, and injurious consequences not unfrequently are the result. 
But it would be still worse, if men constantly held themselves in an attitude of 
resistance to all others, for fear of deception. Woe to man and to society, if 
the philosophic mania of wishing to submit all matters to a rigorous examina- 
tion were to become general in the world ; and woe to science, if this rigorous, 
scrupulous, and independent scrutiny were extended to every thing. 

I admire the genius of Descartes, and acknowledge the signal services which 
he has rendered to science; but I have more than once thought that, if his 
method of doubting became general for any time, society would be destroyed. 
And it seems to me that, among learned men themselves, among impartial 
philosophers, this method would do great harm ; at least, it may be supposed 
that the number of men devoid of sense in the scientific world would be consi- 
derably increased. 

Happily there is no danger of this being the case. If it be true that there 
is always in man a certain tendency towards folly, there is also always to be found 
there a fund of good sense which cannot be destroyed. When certain indivi- 
duals of heated imaginations attempt to involve society in their delirium, society 
answers with a smile of derision; or if it allows itself to be seduced for a 
moment, it soon returns to its senses, and repels with indignation those who 
have endeavored to lead it astray. Passionate declamation against vulgar pre- 
judice, against docility in following others and willingness to believe all without 
examination, is only considered as worthy of contempt by those who are inti- 
mately acquainted with human nature. Are not these feelings participated in 
by many who belong not to the vulgar ? Are not the sciences full of gratui- 
tous suppositions, and have they not their weak points, with which, however, 
we are satisfied, as if they afforded a firm basis to rest upon ? 

The right of possession and prescription is also one of the peculiarities which 
the sciences present to us ; and it is well worthy of remark that, without ever 
having borne the name, this right has been acknowledged by a tacit but unani- 
mous consent. How can this be ? Study the history of the sciences, and you 
will find at every step this right acknowledged and established. How is it, 



48 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



amid the continual disputes which have divided philosophers, that we see an old 
opinion make a long resistance to a new one, and sometimes succeed in pre- 
venting its establishment ? It is because the old opinion was in possession, and 
was strengthened by the right of prescription. It is of no importance that the 
words were not used, the result was the same ; this is the reason why discoverers 
have so often been despised, opposed, and even persecuted. 

It is necessary to make this avowal, although it may be repugnant to our 
pride, and may scandalize some sincere admirers of the progress of knowledge. 
These advances have been numerous ; the field over which the human mind has 
exercised itself, and its sphere of action, are immense ; the works by which it 
has proved its power are admirable ; but there is always in all this a large por- 
tion of exaggeration, and it is necessary to make a considerable allowance, 
especially in the moral sciences. It cannot justly be inferred, from these 
exaggerated statements, that our intellect is capable of advancing in every path 
with perfect ease and activity ; no deduction can be drawn from it to contradict 
the fact which we have just established, viz. the mind of man is almost always 
in subjection, even imperceptibly, to the authority of other men. 

In every age there appear a small number of privileged spirits, who, by 
nature superior to all the rest, serve as guides in the various careers ; a nume- 
rous crowd, who think themselves learned, follow them with precipitation, and, 
fixing their eyes on the standard which has been raised, rush breathlessly after 
it; and yet, strange as it is, they all boast of their independence, and flatter 
themselves that they are distinguishing themselves by pursuing the new path ; 
one would imagine that they had discovered it, and that they were walking in 
it guided by their own light and inspirations. Necessity, taste, or a thousand 
other circumstances, lead us to cultivate this or that branch of knowledge j our 
own weakness constantly tells us that we have no creative power; that we can- 
not produce any thing of our own, and that we are incapable of striking out a 
new path ; but we flatter ourselves that we share some part of the glory belong- 
ing to the illustrious chief whose banner we follow ; we sometimes will succeed 
in persuading ourselves, in the midst of these reveries, that we do not fight 
under anybody's standard, and that we are only rendering homage to our own 
convictions, when, in reality, we are the proselytes of others. 

Herein common sense shows itself to be wiser than our weak reason ; and 
thus language, which gives such deep expression to things, where we find, with- 
out knowing whence they come, so much truth and exactitude, gives us a severe 
admonition on the subject of these vain pretensions. In spite of us, language 
calls things by their right names, and knows how to class us and our opinions 
according to the leader that we follow. What is the history of science but the 
history of the contests of a small number of illustrious men ? If we glance 
over ancient and modern times, and bring into view the various branches of 
knowledge, we shall see a number of schools founded by a philosopher of the 
first rank, and then falling under the direction of another whose talents have 
made him worthy to succeed the founder. Thus the thing goes on, until circum- 
stances having changed, or the spirit of vitality being gone, the school dies a 
natural death, unless a man of bold and independent mind appears, who takes 
the old school and destroys it, in order to establish his own doctrines on the ruins. 

When Descartes dethroned Aristotle, did he not immediately take his place ? 
Then philosophers pretended to independence — an independence which was con- 
tradicted by the very name they bore, that of Cartesians. Like nations who, 
in times of rebellion, cry out for liberty, dethrone their old king, and after- 
wards submit to the first man who has the boldness to seize the vacant throne. 

It is thought in our age, as it has been in times gone by, that the human mind 
acts with perfect independence, owing to declamation against authority in scien- 
tific matters, and the exaltation of the freedom of thought. The opinion has 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



49 



become general that, in these times, the authority of any one man is worth 
nothing ; it has been thought that every man of learning acts according to his 
own convictions alone. Moreover, systems and hypotheses have lost all credit, 
and a great desire for examination and analysis has become prevalent. This has 
made people believe not only that authority in scientific matters is completely 
gone, but that it is henceforth impossible. 

At first sight there appears to be some truth in this \ but if we look atten- 
tively around us, we shall observe that the number of leaders is only somewhat 
increased, and the time of their command somewhat shortened. Our age is 
truly one of commotions, literary and scientific revolutions, like those in poli- 
tics, where nations imagine that they possess more liberty because the govern- 
ment is placed in the hands of a greater number of persons, and because they 
find more facility in getting rid of their rulers. They destroy those men to 
whom but a short time before they have given the names of fathers and libera- 
tors; then, the first transport being passed, they allow other men to impose upon 
them a yoke in reality not less heavy. Besides the examples afforded us by the 
history of the past century, at the present day we see only great names succeed 
each other, and the leaders of the human mind take each other's places. 

In the field of politics, where one would imagine the spirit of freedom ought 
to have full scope, do we not see men who take the lead ; and are they not 
looked upon as the generals of an army during a campaign ? In the parlia- 
mentary arena, do we see any thing but two or three bodies of combatants, per- 
forming their evolutions under their respective chiefs with perfect regularity and 
discipline ? These truths are well understood by those who occupy these high 
positions ! They are acquainted with our weakness, and they know that men 
are commonly deceived by mere words. A thousand times must they have been 
tempted to smile, when, contemplating the field of their triumphs, and seeing 
themselves surrounded by followers who, proud of their own intelligence, admire 
and applaud them, they have heard one of the most ardent of their disciples 
boast of his unlimited freedom of thought, and of the complete independence 
of his opinions and his votes. 

Such is man, as shown to us by history and the experience of every day. The 
inspiration of genius, that sublime force which raises the minds of some privi- 
leged men, will always exercise, not only over the ignorant, but even over the 
generality of men who devote themselves to science, a real fascination. Where, 
then, is the insult which the Catholic religion offers to reason when, presenting 
titles which prove her divinity, she asks for that faith which men grant so 
easily to other men in matters of various kinds, and even in things with which 
they consider themselves to be the best acquainted ? Is it an insult to human 
reason to point out to him a fixed and certain rule with respect to matters of 
the greatest importance, while, on the other hand, she leaves him perfectly free 
to think as he pleases on all the various questions which God has left to his 
discretion ? In this the Church only shows herself to be in accordance with 
the lessons of the highest philosophy. She shows a profound knowledge of the 
human mind, and she delivers it from all the evils which are inflicted by its 
fickleness, its inconstancy, and its ambition, combined as these qualities are 
with an extraordinary tendency to defer to the opinions of individuals. Who 
does not see that the Catholic Church puts thereby a check on the spirit of 
proselytism, of which society has had so much reason to complain? Since 
there is in man this irresistible tendency to follow the footsteps of another, does 
she not confer an eminent service on humanity, by showing it a sure way of 
following the example of a G-od incarnate ? Does she not thus take human 
liberty under her protection, and at the same time save from shipwreck those 
branches of knowledge which are the most necessary to individuals and to 
society? (8) 



50 



CHAPTER VI. 

DIFFERENCES IN THE RELIGIOUS WANTS OF NATIONS — MATHEMATICS — 

MORAL SCIENCES. 

The progress of society, and the high degree of civilization and refinement 
to which modern nations have attained, will no doubt be urged against the au- 
thority which seeks to exercise jurisdiction over the mind. In this way men 
will attempt to justify what they call the emancipation of the human mind. 
For my own part, this objection seems to have so little solidity, and to be so 
little supported by facts, that, from the progress of society, I should, on the 
contrary, conclude that there is the more need of that living rule which is 
deemed indispensable by Catholics. 

To say that society in its infancy and youth may have required this authority 
as a check, but that this check has become useless and degrading since the hu- 
man mind has reached a higher degree of development, is completely to mistake 
the connection which exists between the various conditions of our mind and the 
objects over which this authority extends. The true idea of God, the origin, 
the end, and the rule of human conduct, together with all the means with which 
God has furnished us to attain to our high destiny, such are the subjects with 
which faith deals, and with respect to which Catholics contend that it is neces- 
sary to have an infallible rule. They maintain that without this it would be 
impossible to avoid the most lamentable errors, and to protect truth from the 
effects of human passions. 

This consideration will suffice to show, that private judgment would be much 
less dangerous among nations still less advanced in the career of civilization. 
There is, indeed, in a young nation, a great fund of natural candor and simpli- 
city, which admirably disposes it to receive with docility the instructions con- 
tained in the sacred volume. Such a people will relish those things which are 
easily to be understood, and will bow with humility before the sublime obscurity 
of those pages which it has pleased God to cover with a veil of mystery. More- 
over, the condition of this people, as yet exempt from the pride of knowledge, 
would create a sort of authority, since there would be found within its bosom 
only a small number of men able to examine divine revelation ; and thus a 
centre for the distribution of instruction would be naturally formed. 

But it is far otherwise with a nation far advanced in the career of knowledge. 
With the latter, the extension of knowledge to a greater number of individuals, 
by augmenting pride and fickleness, multiplies sects, and ends by revolution- 
izing ideas and corrupting the purest traditions. A young nation is devoted to 
simple occupations ; it remains attached to its ancient customs ; it listens with 
respect and docility to the aged, who, surrounded by their children and grand- 
children, relate with emotion the histories and the maxims which they have re- 
ceived from their ancestors. But when society has reached a great degree of 
development, when respect for the fathers of families and veneration for gray 
hairs have become weakened \ when pompous titles, scientific display, and grand 
libraries make men conceive a high idea of their intellectual powers ; when the 
multitude and activity of communications widely diffuse those ideas, which, 
when put in motion, have an almost magical power of affecting men's minds, 
then it is necessary, — it is indispensable to have an authority, always living, 
always ready to act whenever it is wanted, — to cover with a protecting segis the 
sacred deposit of truths which are the same in all times and places; truths 
without the knowledge of which man would be left to the mercy of his own 
errors and caprices from the cradle to the grave ; truths on which society rests 
as its surest foundation ; truths which cannot be destroyed without shaking to 
pieces the whole social edifice. The literary and political history of Europe for 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



51 



the last three hundred years affords but too many proofs of this. Keligious 
revolution broke out at the moment when it was capable of doing the most 
harm : it found society agitated by all the activity of the human mind, and it 
destroyed the control when it was most necessary. 

Undoubtedly, it is necessary to guard against depreciating the mind of man 
by charging it with faults which it has not, or by exaggerating those which it 
has ; but it is no less improper to puff it up by exalting its strength too much. 
The latter would be injurious to it in several ways, and would be little likely to 
advance its progress ; it would also, if properly understood, be little conforma- 
ble to that gravity and discretion which ought to distinguish true science. In- 
deed, to merit the name, science ought to show the folly of being vain of what 
does not rightly belong to it ) it ought to know its limits, and have sufficient 
candor and generosity to acknowledge its weakness. 

There is a fact in the history of science, which, by revealing the intrinsic 
weakness of the mind, palpably shows the flattery of those unmeasured eulogies 
which are sometimes lavished on it, and also demonstrates to us how dangerous 
it would be to abandon it to itself without any guide. This fact is, the obscu- 
rity which increases in proportion as we approach the first principles of science ; 
so that even in those sciences the truth, evidence, and exactness of which are 
considered the best established, it seems that no firm ground is to be obtained 
when we attempt to go to the bottom of them ; and the mind, not finding any 
security, recoils in the fear of meeting with something to throw doubt and un- 
certainty on the truths of which it was convinced. 

I do not participate in the ill-humor of Hobbes against the mathematics. 
Devoted to their progress, and deeply convinced as I am of the advantages 
which their study confers on the other sciences and on society, I shall not at- 
tempt to underrate their merit, or deny any of their great claims ; but who can 
say that they are an exception to the general rule ? Have they not their weak 
points and their darksome paths? 

It is true that, when we confine ourselves to the explanation of the first prin- 
ciples of these sciences, and the deduction from them of the most elementary 
propositions, the mind is on firm ground, where no fear of making a false step 
occurs to it. I put aside at present the obscurity which would be found in 
idealogy and metaphysics, if they were to discuss certain points according to the 
writings of the most distinguished philosophers. Let us confine ourselves to 
the circle to which the mathematics are naturally confined. Who that has 
studied them is ignorant that you may reach a point in their theories, where the 
mind finds nothing but obscurity ? The demonstration is before our eyes ; it 
has been developed in all its parts ; and yet the mind wavers, feeling within 
itself a kind of uncertainty which it cannot well describe. It sometimes hap- 
pens that, after reasoning a long time, the truth rushes upon us like the light 
of day ; but it is not until we have walked in darkness for a long period. When 
we fix our attention upon those thoughts which wander in our minds like mov- 
ing lights, on those almost imperceptible emotions which, on these occasions, 
arise, and then die away in the soul, we observe that the mind, in the midst of 
its fluctuations, seeks instinctively for the anchor which is to be found in the 
authority of another. To reassure ourselves completely, we then invoke the 
authority of some great mathematicians, and we rejoice that the fact is placed 
beyond a doubt by the series of great men who have always viewed it in the 
same light. But perhaps our ignorance and pride will not admit the truth of 
these reflections. Let us, then, study these sciences, or at least read their his- 
tory, and we shall be convinced that they afford numerous proofs of the weak- 
ness of the intellect. 

Did not the extraordinary invention of Newton and Leibnitz find many oppo- 
nents in Europe ? Were there not required to establish it, both the sanction of 



52 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



time and the touchstone of experience, which made manifest the truth of their 
principles and the exactness of their reasonings ? Do you believe that, if this 
invention were again, for the first time, to make its appearance in the field of 
science, even fortified with all the proofs which have been brought forward to 
strengthen it, and surrounded with all the light which so many explanations 
have shed upon it, — do you believe, I say, that it would not need a second time 
the right of prescription, to regain its tranquil and undisturbed empire ? 

It is easy to suppose that the other sciences have no little share in this uncer- 
tainty arising from the weakness of the human mind ; as I do not imagine that 
this assertion will be called in question, I pass on to a few remarks on the 
peculiar character of the moral sciences. 

The fact has not been sufficiently attended to, that there is no study more 
deceptive than that of the moral sciences ; I say deceptive, because this study, 
seducing the mind by an appearance of facility, draws it into difficulties which 
it is no easy matter to overcome. It may be compared to those tranquil waters 
which, although apparently but shallow, are in reality unfathomably deep. 
Familiarized from our infancy with the language of this science, surrounded by 
its continual applications, and having before our eyes its truths under a palpable 
form, we possess a certain facility of speaking readily on many parts of the 
subject; and we have the rashness to suppose that it would not be difficult to 
master its highest principles and its most delicate relations. But wonderful as 
it is, scarcely have we quitted the path of common sense, and attempted to go 
beyond those simple impressions which we have received from our mothers, 
when we find ourselves in a labyrinth of confusion. If the mind gives itself 
up to subtilties, it ceases to listen to the voice of the heart, which speaks to it 
with equal simplicity and eloquence ; if it does not repress its pride, and attend 
to the wise counsels of good sense, it will be guilty of despising those salutary 
and necessary truths, which have been preserved by society to be transmitted 
from generation to generation : it is then, while groping its way in the dark, 
that it falls into the wildest extravagances, the lamentable effects of which are 
so often exemplified in the history of the sciences. 

If we observe attentively, we shall find something of the same kind in all the 
sciences. The Creator has taken care to supply us with knowledge necessary 
for the purposes of life, and for the attainment of our destiny ; but it has not 
pleased Him to gratify our curiosity by discovering to us what was not neces- 
sary. Nevertheless, in some things he has communicated to the mind a power 
which renders it capable of constantly adding to its knowledge; but, with 
respect to moral truths, it has been left sterile. What man is required to know, 
has been deeply engraven on his heart, in characters simple and intelligible; or 
is contained in the sacred volume ; and moreover, he has had pointed out to 
him, in the authority of the Church, a fixed rule, to which he can apply to have 
his doubts explained. With respect to the rest, man has been placed in such a 
position, that if he attempt to enter into matters which are too subtle, he only 
wanders backwards and forwards in the same road, at the extremities of which 
he finds on the one side skepticism, on the other pure truth. 

Perhaps some modern idealogists will urge, in opposition to this, the result 
of their own analytical labours. " Before men began to analyze facts," they 
will say, " and while they indulged in fanciful systems, and satisfied themselves 
with verbal disputes without critical examination, all this might be true ; but 
now that we have explained all the ideas of moral good and evil, in so perfect 
a way, and have separated the prejudice in them from the true philosophy; now 
that the whole system of morality is based upon the simple principles of plea- 
sure and pain, and we have given the clearest ideas of these things, such, for ex- 
ample, as the sensations produced in us by an orange; to maintain your assertion, 
is to be ungrateful towards science, and to underrate the fruit of our labours." 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



53 



I am aware of tlie labours of some moral idealogists, and I know with what 
deceptive simplicity they develope their theories, by giving to the most difficult 
things an easy turn, which affects to make them intelligible to the most limited 
minds. This is not the place to examine these analytical investigations, and 
their results. I shall, however, remark that, in spite of their promised sim- 
plicity, it does not appear that either society or science makes much progress 
through their means, and that these opinions, although but a short time broached, 
are already superannuated. This is not a matter of astonishment to us; for it 
was easy to perceive that, in spite of their positiveness, if I may be allowed to 
use the expression, these idealogists are as hypothetical as many of their prede- 
cessors, who are loaded by them with sarcasms and contempt. They are a poor, 
narrow-minded school, devoid of the truth, and not even adorned by the brilliant 
dreams of great men j a proud and deluded school, who fancy they explain a 
fact, when they only obscure it ; and prove a thing, when they only assert it ; 
and imagine that they analyze the human heart, when they take it to pieces. 

If such is the human mind; if such is its inability in matters of science, 
whether physical or moral, that it has not advanced a single step beyond the 
limit prescribed by a beneficent Providence; what service has Protestantism 
rendered to modern society, by impairing the force of authority, that power 
which could alone present an effectual barrier to man's unhappy wander- 
ings? (9) 



CHAPTER VII. 

INDIFFERENCE AND FANATICISM. 

In rejecting the authority of the Church, and in adopting this resistance as 
its only principle, Protestantism was compelled to seek its whole support in 
man ; thus to mistake the true character of the human mind, and its relations 
with religious and moral truth, was to throw itself, according to circumstances, 
into the opposite extremes of fanaticism and indifference. 

It may seem strange that these opposite errors should emanate from the same 
source; and yet nothing is more certain. Protestantism, by appealing to man 
alone in religious matters, had only two courses to adopt; either to suppose 
men to be inspired by Heaven for the discovery of truth, or to subject all reli- 
gious truths to the examination of reason. To submit religious truths to the 
judgment of reason was sooner or later to produce indifference; on the other 
hand, private inspiration must engender fanaticism. 

There is a universal and constant fact in the history of the human mind — 
viz. its decided inclination to invent systems in which the reality of things is 
completely laid aside, and where we only see the workings of a spirit which has 
chosen to quit the ordinary path in order to give itself up to its own inspira- 
tions. The history of philosophy is little else than a perpetual repetition of 
this phenomenon, which the human mind shows, in some shape or other, in all 
things which admit of it. When the mind has conceived a peculiar idea, it 
regards it with that blind and exclusive predilection which is found in the love 
of the father for his children. Under the influence of this prejudice, the mind 
developes its ideas and accommodates facts to suit it ; that which at first was 
only an ingenious and extravagant idea, becomes the germ of important doc- 
trines ; and if it arise in a person of an ardent disposition, fanaticism, the cause 
of so much madness, is the consequence. 

The danger is very much increased when the new system applies to religious 
matters, or is immediately connected with them. The extravagances of a 
diseased mind are then looked upon as inspirations from Heaven ; the fever of 

E2 



54 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



delirium as a divine flame ; and a mania of being singular as an extraordinary 
vocation. Pride, unable to brook opposition, rises against all that it finds esta- 
blished ) it insults all authority ■ it attacks all institutions ; it despises every- 
body ; it conceals the grossest violence under the mantle of zeal, and ambition 
under the name of apostleship. The dupe of himself rather than an impostor, 
the wretched maniac sometimes becomes deeply persuaded that his doctrines are 
true, and that he has received the commands of Heaven. As there is some- 
thing extraordinary and striking in the fiery language of the madman, he com- 
municates to those who listen to him a portion of his insanity, and makes, in a 
short time, a considerable number of proselytes. The men capable of playing 
the first part in this scene of madness are not numerous, it is true ; but unhap- 
pily the majority of men are foolish enough to be easily led away. History and 
experience sufficiently prove that the crowd are easily attracted, and that to form 
a party, however criminal, extravagant, or ridiculous, it is only necessary to 
raise a standard. 

I wish to take this opportunity of making an observation which I have never 
seen pointed out — viz. that the Church, in her contest with heresy, has ren- 
dered an important .service to the science which devotes itself to the examina- 
tion of the true character, tendency, and power of the human mind. The zeal- 
ous guardian of all great truths, she has always known how to preserve them 
unimpaired ; she was fully acquainted with the weakness of the mind of man, 
and its extreme proneness to folly and extravagance ; she has followed it closely 
in all its steps, has watched it in all its movements, and has constantly resisted 
it with energy, when it attempted to pollute the pure fountain of which she is 
the guardian. During the long and violent contests which she has had with it, 
the Church has made manifest its incurable folly; she has exhibited it on every 
side, and has shown it in all its forms. Thus it is that, in the history of here- 
sies, she has made an abundant collection of facts, and has painted an extremely 
interesting picture of the human mind, where its characteristic physiognomy is 
faithfully represented ; a picture which will doubtless be of great service in the 
composition of the important work which is yet unwritten — viz. the true his- 
tory of the human mind. (10) 

Certain it is that the ravings and extravagances of fanaticism have not been 
wanting in the history of Europe for the last three hundred years. Their mo- 
numents still remain ; in whatever direction we turn our steps, we find bloody 
traces of the fanatical sects produced by Protestantism, and engendered by its 
fundamental principle. Nothing could confine this devastating torrent, neither 
the violent character of Luther, nor the furious efforts which he made to oppose 
every one who taught doctrines different from his own. Impiety succeeded im- 
piety, extravagance extravagance, fanaticism fanaticism. The pretended Refor- 
mation was soon divided into as many sects as there were found men with the 
ingenuity to invent and the boldness to maintain a system of their own. This 
was necessarily the case ; for besides the danger of leaving the human mind 
without a guide on all questions of religion, there was another cause fruitful in 
fatal results, I mean the private interpretation of the sacred books. 

It was then found that the best things may be abused, and that these divine 
volumes, which contain so much instruction for the mind, and so much consola- 
tion for the heart, are full of danger to the proud. How great will this be, if 
you add to the obstinate resolution of resisting all authority in matters of faith, 
the false persuasion that the meaning of the Scriptures is everywhere clear, and 
that, in all cases, the inspirations of Heaven may be expected to solve every 
doubt ? What will happen to those who turn over their pages with a longing 
desire to find some text which, more or less tortured, may seem to authorize their 
sophisms, subtilties, and absurdities ? 

There never was a greater mistake than that which was committed by the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



55 



Protestant leaders, when they placed the Bible in the hands of all for self-inter- 
pretation ; never was the nature of that sacred volume more completely lost 
sight of. It is true that Protestantism had no other method to pursue, and that 
every objection which it could make to the private interpretation of the sacred 
text would be a striking inconsistency, an apostasy from its own principles, and 
a denial of its own origin; but at the same time, this is its most decided con- 
demnation. What claim, indeed, can that religion have to truth and sanctity 
whose fundamental principle contains the germ of sects the most fanatical — the 
most injurious to society? 

It would be difficult to collect into so narrow a space, in opposition to this 
essential error of Protestantism, so many facts and convincing proofs of this, as 
are contained in the following lines, written by a Protestant, O'Callaghan, 
which, I have no doubt, my readers will thank me for quoting here. " Led 
away," says O'Callaghan, "by their spirit of opposition to the Church of 
Rome, the first Reformers loudly proclaimed the right of interpreting the Scrip- 
tures according to each one's private judgment; but in their eagerness to eman- 
cipate the people from the authority of the Pope, they proclaimed this right 
without explanation or restriction : and the consequences were fearful. Impa- 
tient to undermine the papal jurisdiction, they maintained without exception, 
that each individual has an incontestable right to interpret the Scriptures for 
himself ; and as this principle, carried to the fullest extent, was not sustainable, 
they were obliged to rely for support upon another, viz. that the Bible is an 
easy book, within the comprehension of all minds, and that the divine revela- 
tions contained in it are always clear to all ; two propositions which, whether 
we consider them together or apart, cannot withstand a serious attack. 

" The private judgment of Muncer found in the Scriptures that titles of no- 
bility and great estates are impious usurpations, contrary to the natural equality 
of the faithful, and he invited his followers to examine if this were not the 
case. They examined into the matter, praised Grod, and then proceeded by fire 
and sword to extirpate the impious and possess themselves of their properties. 
Private judgment made the discovery in the Bible that established laws were 
a permanent restriction on Christian liberty; and, behold, John of Leyden, 
throwing away his tools, put himself at the head of a mob of fanatics, surprised 
the town of Munster, proclaimed himself king of Sion, and took fourteen wives 
at a time, asserting that polygamy is Christian liberty, and the privilege of the 
saints. But if the criminal madness of these men in another country is afflict- 
ing to the friends of humanity and of real piety, certainly the history of Eng- 
land, during a great part of the seventeenth century, is not calculated to con- 
sole them. During that period an immense number of fanatics appeared, some- 
times together and sometimes in succession, intoxicated with extravagant doc- 
trines and mischievous passions, from the fierce ravings of Fox to the more 
methodical madness of Barclay; from the formidable fanaticism of Cromwell to 
the silly profanity of ' Praise God Barebones.' Piety, reason, and good sense 
seemed to be extinct on earth, and to be succeeded by an extravagant jargon, a 
religious frenzy, and a zeal without discretion. All quoted the Scriptures, all 
pretended to have had inspirations, visions, and spiritual ecstasies, and all, in- 
deed, had equal claims to them. It was strongly maintained that it was proper 
to abolish the priesthood and the royal dignity, because priests were the minis- 
ters of Satan, arid kings the delegates of the whore of Babylon, and that the 
existence of both were inconsistent with the reign of the Redeemer. The fana- 
tics condemned science as a Pagan invention, and universities as seminaries of 
antichristian impiety. Bishops were not protected by the sanctity of their 
functions, or kings by the majesty of the throne; both, as objects of contempt 
and hatred, were mercilessly put to death by these fanatics, whose only book 
was the Bible, without note or comment. During this time, the enthusiasm for 



56 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



prayer, preaching, and the reading of the sacred books was at the highest point; 
everybody prayed, preached, and read, but nobody listened. The greatest atro- 
cities were justified by the Scriptures; in the most ordinary transactions of life, 
scriptural language was made use of; national affairs, foreign and domestic, 
were discussed in the phraseology of Holy Writ. There were scriptural plots, 
conspiracies, and proscriptions ; and all this was not only justified but even 
sanctified by quotations from the word of God. These facts, attested by his- 
tory, have often astonished and alarmed men of virtue and piety, but the reader, 
too much imbued with his own ideas, forgets the lesson to be learnt by this fatal 
experience; namely, that the Bible without note or comment was not intended to 
be read by rude and ignorant men. 

"The majority of mankind must be content to receive the instructions of 
others, and are not enabled to trust themselves. The most important truths in 
medicine, in jurisprudence, in physics, in mathematics, must be received from 
those who drink at the fountain head. The same plan has in general been pur- 
sued with respect to Christianity ; and whenever the departure from it has been 
wide enough, 1 society has been shaken to its foundation' " 

These words of O'Callaghan do not require any comment. It cannot be said 
that they are hyperbolical or declamatory, as they are only a simple and faithful 
narration of acknowledged facts. The recollection of these events should suffice 
to prove the danger of placing the sacred Scriptures, without note or comment, 
into the hands of all, as Protestantism does, under the pretence, that the au- 
thority of the Church is useless for understanding the holy books ; and that 
every Christian has only to listen to the dictates which generally emanate from 
his passions and heated imagination. By this error alone, if it had committed 
no other, Protestantism is self-reproved and condemned; for it is a religion 
which has established a principle destructive to itself. In order to appreciate 
the madness of Protestantism on this point, and to see how false and dangerous 
is the position which it has assumed with regard to the human mind, it is not 
necessary to be a theologian, or a Catholic; it is enough to have read the Scrip- 
tures with the eyes of a philosopher or a man of literature. Here is a book 
which comprises, within a limited compass, the period of four thousand years, 
and advances further towards the most distant future, by embracing the origin 
and destiny of man and the universe — a book which, with the continued his- 
tory of a chosen people, intermingles, in its narrations and prophecies, the re- 
volutions of mighty empires — a book which, side by side with the magnificent 
pictures of the power and splendor of Eastern monarchs, describes, in simple 
colors, the plain domestic manners, the candor, and innocence of a young 
nation — a book in which historians relate, sages proclaim their maxims of wis- 
dom, apostles preach, and doctors instruct — a book in which prophets, under 
the influence of the divine Spirit, thunder against the errors and corruptions of 
the people, and announce the vengeance of the Grod of Sinai, or pour forth in- 
consolable lamentations on the captivity of their brethren, and the desolation 
and solitude of their country; where they relate, in wonderful and sublime lan- 
guage, the magnificent spectacles which are presented to their eyes; where, in 
moments of ecstasy, they see pass before them the events of society and the 
catastrophes of nature, although veiled in mysterious figures and visions of ob- 
scurity — a book, or rather a collection of books, where are to be found all sorts 
of styles and all varieties of narrative, epic majesty, pastoral simplicity, lyric 
fire, serious instruction, grave historical narrative, and lively and rapid dramatic 
action ; a collection of books, in fine, written at various times and in various 
languages, in various countries, and under the most peculiar and extraordinary 
circumstances. Must not all this confuse the heads of men who, puffed up with 
their own conceit, grope through these pages in the dark, ignorant of climates, 
times, laws, customs, and manners ? They will be puzzled by allusions, sur- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



57 



prised by images, deceived by expressions ; they will hear the Greek and He- 
brew, which was written in those remote ages, now spoken in a modern idiom. 
What effects must all these circumstances produce on the minds of readers who 
believe that the Bible is an easy book, to be understood without difficulty by 
all ? Persuaded that they do not require the instructions of others, they must 
either resolve all these difficulties by their own reflections, or trust to that indi- 
vidual inspiration which they believe will not be wanting to explain to them 
the loftiest mysteries. Who, after this, can be astonished that Protestantism 
has produced so many absurd visionaries and furious fanatics ? (11) 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FANATICISM — ITS DEFINITION. — FANATICISM IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

It would be unjust to charge a religion with falsehood, merely because fanatics 
are to be found within its bosom. This would be to reject all, because none are 
to be found exempt from them. A religion, then, is not to be condemned 
because it has them, but because it produces them, urges them on, and opens a 
field for them. If we observe closely, we shall find at the bottom of the human 
heart an abundant source of fanaticism; the history of man affords us many 
proofs of this incontestable truth. Imagine whatever delusion you please, 
relate the most extravagant visions, invent the most absurd system, if you only 
take care to give to all a religious coloring, you may be sure that you will have 
enthusiastic followers, who will heartily devote themselves to the propagation 
of your doctrines, and will espouse your cause blindly and ardently ; in other 
words, you will have under your standard a troop of fanatics. 

Philosophers have devoted many pages to declamation against fanaticism; 
they have, as it were, assumed the mission of banishing it from the earth. 
They have tired mankind with philosophical lectures, and have thundered 
against the monster with all the vigor of their eloquence. They used the word, 
however, in so wide a sense as to include all kind of religion. But, if they 
had confined themselves to attacking real fanaticism, I believe they would have 
done much better if they had devoted some time to the examination of this mat- 
ter in an analytic spirit, and had treated it, after so doing, maturely, calmly, 
and without prejudice. 

Inasmuch as these philosophers were aware that fanaticism is a natural 
infirmity of the human mind, they could, if they were men of sense and wis- 
dom, have had little hope of banishing the accursed monster from the world by 
reasoning and eloquence ; for I am not aware that, up to the present time, phi- 
losophy has remedied any of the important evils that afflict humanity. Among 
the numerous errors of the philosophy of the eighteenth century, one of the 
principal was the mania for types ; there was formed in the mind a type of the 
nature of man, of society, in a word, of every thing; and every thing that 
could not be adjusted to this type, every thing that could not be moulded into 
the required form, was so subjected to the fury of philosophers, as to make it 
certain, at least, that the want of pliability did not go unpunished. 

But do I mean to deny the existence of fanaticism in the world ? There is 
much of it. Do I deny that it is an evil ? It is a very great one. Can it be 
extirpated ? It cannot. How can its extent be diminished, its force weakened, 
and its violence checked ? By directing man wisely. Can this be done by 
philosophy ? We shall presently see. What is the origin of fanaticism ? We 
must begin by defining the real meaning of the word. By fanaticism is meant, 
taking the word in its widest signification, the strong excitement of a mind 
powerfully acted on by a false or exaggerated opinion. If the opinion be true, 

8 



58 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



if it be confined within just limits, there is no fanaticism ; or, if there be any, 
it is only with respect to the means employed in defending the opinion. But in 
that case there is an erroneous judgment, since it is believed that the truth of 
the opinion authorizes the means ; that is to say, there is already error or exag- 
geration. If a true opinion be sustained by legitimate means, if the occasion 
be opportune, whatever may be the excitement or effervescence of mind, what- 
ever may be the energy of the efforts and the sacrifices made, then there is 
enthusiasm of mind and heroism of action, but no fanaticism. Were it other- 
wise, the heroes of all times and countries might be stigmatized as fanatics. 

Fanaticism, in this general sense, extends to all the subjects which occupy 
the human mind j thus there are fanatics in religion, in politics, even in science 
and literature. Nevertheless, according to etymology and custom, the word is 
properly applied to religious matters only ; therefore the word, when used alone, 
means fanaticism in religion, whilst, when applied to other things, it is always 
accompanied by a qualifying epithet; thus we say political fanatics, literary 
fanatics, &c. 

There is no doubt that in religious matters men have a strong tendency to 
give themselves to a dominant idea, which they desire to communicate to all 
around them, and propagate everywhere. They sometimes go so far as to attempt 
this by the most violent means. The same fact appears, to a certain extent, in 
other matters ; but it acquires in religious things a character different from what 
it assumes elsewhere. It is there that the human mind acquires increased force, 
frightful energy, and unbounded expansion; there are no more difficulties, 
obstacles, or fetters ; material interests entirely disappear ; the greatest suffer- 
ings acquire a charm; torments are nothing; death itself is a seductive illusion. 

This phenomenon varies with individuals, with ideas, with the manners of the 
nation in whose bosom it is produced; but at bottom it is always the same. If 
we examine the matter thoroughly, we shall find that the violences of the fol- 
lowers of Mahomet, and the extravagant disciples of Fox, have a common 
origin. 

It is with this passion as with all others ; when they produce great evils, it 
is because they deviate from their legitimate objects, or because they strive at 
those objects by means which are not conformable to the dictates of reason and 
prudence. Fanaticism, then, rightly understood, is nothing but misguided reli- 
gious feeling; a feeling which man has within him from the cradle to the tomb, 
and which is found to be diffused throughout society in all periods of its exist- 
ence. Vain have been the efforts made up to this time to render men irreligious; 
a few individuals may give themselves up to the folly of complete irreligion ; but 
the human race always protests against those who endeavor to stifle the senti- 
ment of religion. Now this feeling is so strong and active, it exercises so 
unbounded an influence on man, that no sooner has it been diverted from its 
legitimate object, and quitted the right path, than it is seen to produce lament- 
able results ; then it is that two causes, fertile in great disasters, are found in 
combination, complete blindness of the understanding and irresistible energy 
of the will. 

In declaiming against fanaticism, many Protestants and philosophers have 
thought proper to throw a large share of blame on the Catholic Church ; cer- 
tainly they ought to have been more moderate in this respect if their philosophy 
had been good. It is true the Church cannot boast of having cured all the 
follies of man ; she cannot pretend to have banished fanaticism so completely 
as not to have some fanatics among her children ; but she may justly boast that 
no religion has taken more effectual means of curing the evil. It may, more- 
over, be affirmed, that she has taken her measures so well, that when it does 
make its appearance, she confines it within such limits that it may exist for a 
time, but cannot produce very dangerous results. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



59 



Its mental errors and delirious dreams, which, if encouraged, lead men to the 
commission of the greatest extravagances and the most horrible crimes, are 
kept under control when the mind possesses a salutary conviction of its own 
weakness and a respect for infallible authority. If they be not extinguished 
at their birth, at least they remain in a state of isolation, they do not injure 
the deposit of true doctrine, and the ties which unite all the faithful as mem- 
bers of the same body are not broken. With respect to revelations, visions, 
prophecies, and ecstasies, as long as they preserve a private character and do 
not affect the truths of faith, the Church, generally speaking, tolerates them 
and abstains from interference, leaving the discussion of the facts to criticism, 
and allowing the faithful an entire liberty of thinking as they please ; but if 
the affair assumes a more important aspect, if the visionary calls in question 
points of doctrine, she immediately shows her vigilance. Attentive to every 
voice raised against the instructions of her Divine Master, she fixes an observant 
eye on the innovator. She examines whether he be a man deceived in matters 
of doctrine or a wolf in sheep's clothing ; she raises her warning voice, she 
points out to all the faithful the error or the danger, and the voice of the Shep- 
herd recalls the wandering sheep j but if he refuse to listen to her, and prefer 
to follow his own caprices, she separates him from the flock, and declares him 
to resemble the wolf. From that moment all those who are sincerely desirous 
of continuing in the bosom of the Church, can no more be infected with the 
error. 

Undoubtedly, Protestants will reproach Catholics with the number of visiona- 
ries who have existed in the Church ; they will recall the revelations and visions 
of a great number of saints who are venerated on our altars ; they will accuse 
us of fanaticism, — a fanaticism, they will say, which, far from being limited in 
its effects to a narrow circle, has been able to produce the most important re- 
sults. "Do not the founders of religious orders alone," they will say, "afford 
us a spectacle of a long succession of fanatics, who, self-deluded, exercised upon 
others, by their words and example, the greatest fascination that was ever seen V 

As this is not the place to enlarge upon the subject of religious communities, 
which I propose to do in another part of this work, I shall content myself with 
the observation, that even supposing that all the visions and revelations of our 
saints and the heavenly inspirations with which the founders of religious orders 
believed themselves to have been favored were delusions, our opponents would 
not be in any way justified in throwing on the Church the reproach of fanati- 
cism. And, first, it is easy to see that, as far as individual visions are con- 
cerned, as long as they are thus limited, there may be delusion, or, if you will, 
fanaticism ; but this fanaticism will not be injurious to any one, or create con- 
fusion in society. If a poor woman believe herself to be peculiarly favoured 
by Heaven, if she fancy that she hears the words of the Blessed Virgin, that 
she converses with angels who bring her messages from God, all this may excite 
the credulity of some and the raillery of others, but certainly it will not cost 
society a drop of blood or a tear. As to the founders of religious orders, in 
what way are they subject to the charge of fanaticism? Let us pass in silence 
the profound respect which their virtues deserve, and the gratitude which hu- 
manity owes them for the inestimable benefits conferred \ let us suppose that 
they were deceived in all their inspirations ) we may certainly call this delusion, 
but not fanaticism. We do not find in them either frenzy or violence ; they 
are men diffident in themselves, who, when they believe that they are called by 
Heaven to a great design, never commence the work without having prostrated 
themselves at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff ) they submit to his judgment 
the rules for the establishment of their orders, they ask his instruction, listen 
to his decision with docility, and do nothing without having obtained his per- 
mission. How, then, do these founders of orders resemble the fanatics, who, 



60 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



putting themselves at the head of a furious multitude, kill, destroy, arid leave 
everywhere behind them traces of blood and ruin ? We see in the founders of 
religious orders men who, deeply impressed with an idea, devote themselves to 
realize it, however great may be the sacrifice. Their conduct constantly shows 
a fixed idea, which is developed according to a preconcerted plan, and is always 
highly social and religious in its object : above all, this is submitted to autho- 
rity, maturely examined and corrected by the counsels of prudence. An im- 
partial philosopher, whatever may be his religious opinions, may find in all this 
more or less illusion and prejudice, or prudence and address ; but he cannot find 
fanaticism, for there is nothing there which resembles it. (12) 



CHAPTER IX. 

INFIDELITY AND INDIFFERENCE IN EUROPE, THE FRUITS OF PRO- 
TESTANTISM. 

The fanaticism of sects, which is excited, kept alive, and nourished in Eu- 
rope, by the private judgment of Protestantism, is certainly an evil of the 
greatest magnitude ; yet it is not so mischievous or alarming as the infidelity 
and religious indifference for which modern society is indebted to the pretended 
Reformation. Brought on by the scandalous extravagances of so many sects of 
soidisant Christians, infidelity and religious indifference, which have their root 
even in the very principle of Protestantism, began to show themselves with 
alarming symptoms in the sixteenth century; they have acquired with time 
great diffusion, they have penetrated all the branches of science and literature, 
have produced an effect on languages, and have endangered all the conquests 
which civilization had gained during so many ages. 

Even during the sixteenth century, and amid the hot disputes and religious 
wars which Protestantism had enkindled, infidelity spread in an alarming man- 
ner ; and it is probable that it was even more common than it appeared to be, 
as it was not easy to throw off the mask at a period so near to the time when 
religious convictions had been so deeply rooted. It is very likely that infidelity 
was propagated disguised under the mantle of the Reformation, and that some- 
times enlisting under the banner of one sect and sometimes of another, it 
labored to weaken them all, in order to set up its own throne on the general 
ruin of faith. 

It does not require a great effort of logic to pass from Protestantism to Deism ; 
from Deism to Atheism, there is but a step j and there must have been, at the 
time when these errors were broached, a large number of persons with reason- 
ing powers enough to carry them out to the fullest extent. The Christian reli- 
gion, as explained by Protestants, is only a kind of philosophic system more or 
less reasonable ; as, when fully examined, it has no divine character. How, 
then, can it govern a reflecting and independent mind ? Yes, one glance at the 
first exhibitions of Protestantism must have been enough to incline all those 
to religious indifference who, naturally disinclined to fanaticism, had lost the 
anchor of the Church's authority. When we consider the language and con- 
duct of the sectarian leaders of that time, we are strongly inclined to suspect 
that they laughed at all Christian faith ; that they concealed their indifference 
or their Atheism under strange doctrines which served as a standard, and that 
they propagated their writings with very bad faith, while they disguised their 
perfidious intention of preserving in the minds of their partisans sectarian 
fanaticism. 

Thus, listening to the dictates of good sense, the father of the famous Mon- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



61 



taigne, although he had seen as yet only the preludes of the Reformation, said, 
"that this beginning of evil would easily degenerate into execrable Atheism." 
A very remarkable testimony, which has been preserved to us by his son him- 
self, who was certainly neither weak nor hypocritical. (Essais de Montaigne, 
liv. ii. chap. 12.) When this man pronounced so wise a judgment on the real 
tendency of Protestantism, did he imagine that his own son would confirm the 
justness of his prediction ? Everybody knows that Montaigne was one of the 
first skeptics that became famous in Europe. It was requisite, at that time, for 
men to be cautious in declaring themselves Atheists or indifferentists, among 
Protestants themselves ; and it may readily be imagined that all unbelievers 
had not the boldness of Gruet ; yet we may believe the celebrated theologian 
of Toledo, Chacon, who said at the beginning of the last third of the sixteenth 
century, " that the heresy of the Atheists, of those who believed nothing, had 
great strength in France and in other countries." 

Religious controversy continued to occupy the attention of all the savans of 
Europe, and during this time the gangrene of infidelity made great progress. 
This evil, from the middle of the seventeenth century, assumed a most alarming 
aspect. Who is not dismayed at reading the profound thoughts of Pascal on 
religious indifference? and who has not felt, in reading them, the emotion 
which is caused in the soul by the presence of a dreadful evil ? 

Things were now much advanced, and unbelievers were not far from being 
in a position, to take their rank among the schools who disputed for the upper 
hand in Europe. With more or less of disguise, they had already for a long 
time shown themselves under the form of Socinianism ; but that did not suffi.ce, 
for Socinianism bore at least the name of a religious sect, and irreligion began 
to feel itself strong enough to appear under its own name. The last part of the 
seventeenth century presents a crisis which is very remarkable with respect to 
religion ; — a crisis which perhaps has not been well examined, although it exhi- 
bits some very remarkable facts ; I allude to a lassitude of religious disputes, 
marked by two tendencies diametrically opposed to each other, and yet very 
natural : one towards Catholicity and the other towards Atheism. 

Every one knows how much disputing there had been up to this time on 
religion j religious controversies were the prevailing taste, and it may be said 
that they formed the principal occupation not only of ecclesiastics, both Catholic 
and Protestant, but even of the well-educated laity. This taste penetrated the 
palaces of kings and princes. The natural result of so many controversies was 
to disclose the radical error of Protestantism : then the mind, which could not 
remain firm on such slippery ground, was obliged, either to adopt authority, or 
abandon itself to Atheism or complete indifference. These tendencies made 
themselves very perceptibly felt ; thus it was that at the very time when Bayle 
thought Europe sufficiently prepared for his infidelity and skepticism, there was 
going on an animated and serious correspondence for the reunion of the German 
Protestants with the Catholic Church. Men of education are acquainted with 
the discussions which took place between the Lutheran Molanus, abbot of 
Lockum, and Christopher, at first Bishop of Tyna, and afterwards of Newstad. 
The correspondence between the two most remarkable men at that time in 
Europe of both communions, Bossuet and Leibnitz, is another monument of the 
importance of these negotiations. The happy moment was not yet come; 
political considerations, which ought to have vanished in the presence of such 
lofty interests, exercised a mischievous influence on the great soul of Leibnitz, 
and he did not preserve, throughout the progress of the discussions and nego- 
tiations, the sincerity, good faith, and elevation of view, which he had evinced 
at the commencement. The negotiation did not succeed, but the mere fact of 
its existence shows clearly enough the void which was felt in Protestantism ; 
for we cannot believe that the two most celebrated men of that communion, 

P 



62 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Molanus and Leibnitz, would have advanced so far in so important a negotiation, 
unless they had observed among themselves many indications of a disposition 
to return to the bosom of the Church. Add to this, the declaration of the 
Lutheran university of Helmstad in favor of the Catholic religion, and the 
fresh attempts at a reunion made by a Protestant prince, who addressed him- 
self to Pope Clement XL, and you have strong reasons for believing that the 
Reformation felt itself mortally wounded. If 6od had been willing to permit 
that so great a result should appear to have been effected in any way by human 
means, the deep convictions prevalent among the most distinguished Protestants 
might perhaps have greatly contributed to heal the wounds which had been 
inflicted upon religious unity by the revolutionists of the sixteenth century. 

But the profound wisdom of God had decided otherwise. In allowing men 
to pursue their own opposite and perverse inclinations, He was pleased to chas- 
tise them by means of their own pride. The tendency towards unity was no 
longer dominant in the next century, but gave place to a philosophic skepticism, 
indifferent towards all other religions, but the deadly enemy of the Catholic. 
It may be said that at that time there was a combination of the most fatal 
influences to hinder the tendency towards unity from attaining its object. 
Already were the Protestant sects divided and subdivided into numberless par- 
ties, and although Protestantism was thereby weakened, yet, nevertheless, it 
was diffused over the greater part of Europe ; the germ of doubt in religious 
matters had inoculated the whole of European society. There was no truth 
which had escaped attack j no error or extravagance which had not had apostles 
and proselytes; and it was much to be feared that men would fall into that 
state of fatigue and discouragement which is the result of great efforts made 
without success, and into that disgust which is always produced by endless dis- 
putes and great scandals. 

To complete the misfortune, and to bring to a climax the state of lassitude 
and disgust, there was another evil, which produced the most fatal results. 
The champions of Catholicity contended, with boldness and success, against the 
religious innovations of Protestants. Languages, history, criticism, philosophy, 
all that is most precious, rich, and brilliant in human knowledge, had been 
employed in the noblest way in this important struggle ; and the great men 
who were most prominent among the defenders of the Church seemed to con- 
sole her for the sad losses which she had sustained by the troubles of another 
age. But while she embraced in her arms these zealous sons, those who boasted 
the most of being called her children, she observed in some of them, with sur- 
prise and dread, an attitude of disguised hostility ; and in their thinly veiled 
language and conduct she could easily perceive that they meditated giving her 
a fatal blow. Always asserting their submission and their obedience, but never 
submitting or obeying ; continually extolling the authority and divine origin 
of the Church, and carefully concealing their hatred of her existing laws and 
institutions under cover of. professed zeal for the re-establishment of ancient 
discipline ; they sapped the foundations of morality, while they claimed to be 
its earnest advocates; they disguised their hypocrisy and pride under false 
humility and affected modesty; they called obstinacy firmness, and wilful 
blindness strength of mind. This rebellion presented an aspect more dangerous 
than any heresy ; their honeyed words, studied candor, respect for antiquity, 
and the show of learning and knowledge, would have contributed to blind the 
best informed, if the innovators had not been distinguished by the constant and 
unfailing characteristic of all erroneous sects, viz. hatred of authority. 

They were seen from time to time struggling against the declared enemies 
of the Church, defending, with great display of learning, the truth of her sacred 
dogmas, citing, with respect and deference, the writings of the holy fathers, and 
declaring that they adhered to tradition, and had a profound veneration for the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



63 



decisions of councils and Popes. They particularly prided themselves on being 
called Catholics, however much their language and conduct were inconsistent 
with the name. Never did they get rid of the marvellous infatuation with which 
they denied their existence as a sect ; and thus did they throw in the way of 
ill-informed persons the unhappy scandal of a dogmatical dispute, going on 
apparently within the bosom of the Church herself. The Pope declared them 
heretics ; all true Catholics bowed to the decision of the Vicar of Jesus Christ ; 
from all parts of the world a voice was unanimously raised to pronounce 
anathema against all who did not listen to the successor of St. Peter; but 
they themselves, denying and eluding all, persisted in considering them- 
selves as a body of Catholics oppressed by the spirit of relaxation, abuse, and 
intrigue. 

This scandal gave the finishing stroke to the leading of men astray, and the 
fatal gangrene which was infecting European society soon developed itself with 
frightful rapidity. The religious disputes, the multitude and variety of sects, 
the animosity which they showed against each other, all contributed to disgust 
with religion itself whoever were not held fast by the anchor of authority. To 
establish indifference as a system, atheism as a creed, and impiety as a fashion, 
there was only wanting a man laborious enough to collect, unite, and present in 
a body all the numerous materials which were scattered in a multitude of works; 
a man who knew how to give to all this a philosophical complexion suitable to 
the prevailing taste, and who could give to sophistry and declamation that seduc- 
tive appearance, that deceptive form and dazzling show, by which the produc- 
tions of genius are always marked, in the midst even of their wildest vagaries'. 
Such a man appeared in the person of Bayle. The noise which his famous 
dictionary made in the world, and the favor which it enjoyed from the begin- 
ning, show how well the author had taken advantage of his opportunity. The 
dictionary of Bayle is one of those books which, considered apart from their 
scientific and literary merit, always serve to denote a remarkable epoch, because 
they present, together with the fruits of the past, the clear perception of a long 
future. The author of such a work is not distinguished so much on account of 
his own merit, as because he has known how to become the representative of 
ideas previously diffused in society, but floating about in a state of uncertainty; 
and yet his name recalls a vast history, of which he is the personification. The 
publication of Bayle' s work may be regarded as the solemn inauguration of the 
chair of infidelity in Europe. The sophists of the eighteenth century found at 
hand an abundant repository of facts and arguments ; but to render the thing 
complete, there was wanting a hand capable of retouching the old paintings, of 
restoring their faded colors, and of shedding over all the charms of imagination 
and the refinement of wit ; there was wanting a guide to lead mankind by a 
flowery path to the borders of the abyss. Scarcely had Bayle descended into 
the tomb, when there appeared above the literary horizon a young man, whose 
great talents were equalled by his malice and audacity ; Voltaire. 

It was necessary to draw the reader's attention to the period which I have 
just described, to show him how great was the influence exercised by Protest- 
antism in producing and establishing in Europe the irreligion, atheism, and 
fatal indifference which have caused so many evils in modern society. I do not 
mean to charge all Protestants with impiety ; and I willingly acknowledge the 
sincerity and firmness of many of their most illustrious men, in struggling 
against the progress of irreligion. I am not ignorant that men sometimes 
adopt a principle and repudiate its consequences, and that it would, therefore, 
be very unjust to class them with those who openly accept those consequences ; 
but on the other hand, however painful it may be to Protestants to avow that 
their system leads to atheism, it is nevertheless a fact which cannot be denied. 
All that they can claim of me on this point is, not to criminate their intentions; 



64 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



after that, they cannot complain if, guided by the instructions of history and 
philosophy, I develope their fundamental principle to the fullest extent. 

It would he useless to sketch, even in the most rapid manner, what has 
passed in Europe since the appearance of Voltaire : the events are so recent, 
and have been so often discussed, that all that I could say would be only a useless 
repetition. I shall better attain my object by offering some remarks on the 
actual state of religion in Protestant countries. Amid so many revolutions, and 
when so many heads were turned; when all the foundations of society were 
shaken, and the strongest institutions were torn out of the soil in which they 
had been so deeply rooted ) when even Catholic truth itself could not have been 
sustained without the manifest aid of the arm of the Most High, we may ima- 
gine the fate of the fragile edifice of Protestantism, exposed, like all the rest, to 
so many and such violent attacks. No one is ignorant of the numberless sects 
which abound in Great Britain, of the deplorable condition of faith among the 
Swiss Protestants, even on the most important points. That there might be no 
doubt as to the real state of the Protestant religion in Germany, that is, in its 
native country, where it was first established as in its dearest patrimony, the 
Protestant minister, Baron Starck, has taken care to tell us, that " in Germany 
there is not one single point of Christian faith which has not been openly attacked 
by the Protestant ministers themselves." The real state of Protestantism appears 
to me to be truly and forcibly depicted by a curious idea of J. Heyer, a Pro- 
testant minister. Heyer published, in 1818, a work entitled Coup oVoeil sur les 
Confessions de Foi; not knowing how to get out of the difficulty in which all 
Protestants found themselves placed when they had to choose a symbol, he pro- 
posed the simple expedient of getting rid of all symbols. 

The only way that Protestantism has of preserving itself, is to violate as much 
as possible its own fundamental principle, by withdrawing the right of private 
judgment, inducing the people to remain faithful to the opinions in which they 
have been educated, and carefully concealing from them the inconsistency into 
which they fall, when they submit to the authority of a private individual, after 
having rejected the authority of the Catholic church. But things are not taking 
this course ; and in spite of the efforts of some Protestants to follow it, Bible 
Societies, working with a zeal worthy of a better cause, in promoting among all 
classes the private interpretation of the Bible, would suffice to keep alive always 
the spirit of inquiry. This diffusion of the Bible operates as a constant appeal 
to private judgment, which, after perhaps causing many days of sorrow and 
mourning to society, will eventually destroy the remains of Protestantism. All 
this has not escaped the notice of its disciples; and some of the most remark- 
able among them have raised their voices to point out the danger. (13) 



CHAPTER X. 

CAUSES OF THE CONTINUANCE OF PROTESTANTISM. 

After having clearly shown the intrinsic weakness of Protestantism, it is 
natural to ask this question : If it be so feeble, owing to the radical defects of 
its constitution, why has it not by this time completely disappeared ? If it bear 
in its own breast the seeds of death, how has it been able so long to withstand 
such powerful adversaries, as Catholicity, on the one hand, and irreligion or 
Atheism, on the other ? In order to resolve this question satisfactorily, it is 
necessary to consider Protestantism in two points of view; as embodying a 
fixed creed, and as expressing a number of sects, who, in spite of their numerous 
mutual differences, agree in calling themselves Christians, and preserve a 
shadow of Christianity, although they reject the authority of the Church. It 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



65 



is necessary to consider Protestantism in this double point of view, since its 
founders, while endeavoring to destroy the authority and dogmas of the Roman 
Church, were compelled to form a system of doctrines to serve as a symbol for 
their followers. Considered in the first aspect, it has almost entirely disap- 
peared; we should rather say it scarcely ever had existence. This truth is 
sufficiently evident from what I have said of the variations and actual condition 
of Protestantism in the various countries of Europe ; time has shown how much 
the pretended Reformers were deceived, when they fancied that they could fix 
the columns of Hercules of the human mind, to repeat the expression of Ma- 
dame de Stael. 

Who now defends the doctrines of Luther and Calvin ? Who respects the 
limits which they prescribed ? What Protestant Church distinguishes itself by 
the ardor of its zeal in preserving any particular dogmas ? What Protestant 
now holds the divine mission of Luther, or believes the Pope to be Antichrist ? 
Who watches over the purity of doctrine, and points out errors ? Who opposes 
the torrent of sectarianism ? 

Do we find, in their writings, or in their discourses, the energetic tones of 
conviction, or the zeal of truth ? In fine, what a wide difference do we find 
when we compare the Protestant Church with the Catholic ! Inquire into the 
faith of the latter, and you will hear from the mouth of Gregory XVI., the 
successor of St. Peter, the same that Luther heard from Leo X. Compare the 
doctrine of Leo X. with that of his predecessors, you will always find it the 
same up to the Apostles, and to Jesus Christ himself. If you attempt to assail 
a dogma, if you try to attack the purity of morals, the voice of the ancient 
Fathers will denounce your errors, and in the middle of the nineteenth century 
you will imagine that the old Leos and Gregories are risen from the tomb. If 
your intentions are good, you will find indulgence 5 if your merits are great, you 
will be treated with respect ; if you occupy an elevated position in the world, 
you will have attention paid to you. But if you attempt to abuse your talents 
by introducing novelty in doctrine ; if, by your power, you aspire to demand a 
modification of faith ; and if, to avoid troubles or prevent schism, or conciliate 
any one, you ask for a compromise or even an ambiguous explanation; the 
answer of the successor of St. Peter will be, " Never ! faith is a sacred deposit 
which we cannot alter; truth is immutable; it is one:" and to this reply of 
the Vicar of Jesus Christ, which with a word will banish all your hopes, will 
be added those of the modern Athanasiuses, Gregories of Nazianzen, Ambroses, 
Jeromes, and Augustins. Always the same firmness in the same faith, the 
same unchangeableness, the same energy in preserving the sacred deposit intact, 
in defending it against the attacks of error, in teaching it to the faithful in all 
its purity, and in transmitting it unaltered to future generations. Will it be 
said that this is obstinacy, blindness, and fanaticism ? But, eighteen centuries 
gone by, the revolutions of empires, the most fearful catastrophes, an infinite 
variety of ideas and manners, the most severe persecutions, the darkness of 
ignorance, the conflicts of passion, the lights of knowledge, — none of these 
have been able to enlighten this blindness, to bend this obstinacy, or extinguish 
this fanaticism. Certainly a reflecting Protestant, one of those who know how 
to rise above the prejudices of education, when fixing his eyes on this picture, 
the truth of which he cannot but acknowledge, if he is well informed on the 
question, will feel strong doubts arise within him as to the truth of the instruc- 
tion he has received ; he will at least feel a desire of examining more closely 
this great prodigy which the Catholic Church presents to us. But to return. 

We see the Protestant sects melting away daily, and this dissolution must 
constantly increase; nevertheless, we have no reason to be astonished that 
Protestantism, inasmuch as it consists of a number of sects who preserve the 
name and some remains of Christianity, does not wholly disappear; for how 
9 f2 



66 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



could it disappear ? Either Protestant nations must be completely swallowed 
up by irreligion or atheism, or they must give up Christianity and adopt one 
of the religions which are established in other parts of the world. Now both 
these suppositions are impossible ; therefore this false form of Christianity has 
been and will be preserved, in some shape or other, until Protestants return to 
the bosom of the Church. 

Let us develope these ideas. Why cannot Protestant nations be completely 
swallowed up by irreligion and atheism, or indifference ? Because such a mis- 
fortune may happen to an individual, but not to a nation. By means of false 
books, erroneous reasonings, and continual efforts, some individuals may extin- 
guish the lively sentiments of their hearts, stifle the voice of conscience, and 
trample under foot the dictates of common sense ; but a nation cannot do so. 
A people always preserves a large fund of candor and docility, which, amid the 
most fatal errors and even the most atrocious crimes, compels it to lend an 
attentive ear to the inspirations of nature. Whatever may be the corruption of 
morals, whatever may be the errors of opinion, there will never be more than a 
small number of men found capable of struggling for a long time against them- 
selves, in the attempt to eradicate from their hearts that fruitful germ of good 
feelings, that precious seed of virtuous thoughts, with which the beneficent 
hand of the Creator has enriched our souls. The conflagration of the passions, 
it is true, produces lamentable prostration, and sometimes terrible explosions ) 
but when the fire is extinguished, man returns to himself, and his mind be- 
comes again accessible to the voice of reason and virtue. An attentive study 
of society proves that the number of men is happily very small who are, as it 
were, steeled against truth and virtue ; who reply with frivolous sophistry to 
the admonitions of good sense ; who oppose with cold stoicism the sweetest and 
most generous inspirations of nature, and venture to display, as an illustration 
of philosophy, firmness, and elevation of mind, the ignorance, obstinacy, and 
barrenness of an icy heart. The generality of mankind, more simple, more 
candid, more natural, are consequently ill-suited to a system of atheism, or in- 
difference. Such a system may take possession of the proud mind of a learned 
visionary ) it may be adopted, as a convenient opinion, by dissipated youth ; and 
in times of agitation, it may influence a few fiery spirits ; but it will never be 
able to establish itself in society as a normal condition. 

No, by no means. An individual may be irreligious, but families and society 
never will. Without a basis on which the social edifice must rest j without a 
great creative idea, whence will flow the ideas of reason, virtue, justice, obliga- 
tion, and right, which are as necessary to the existence and preservation of 
society as blood and nourishment are to the life of the individual, society would 
be destroyed ; without the sweet ties by which religious ideas unite together the 
members of a family, without the heavenly harmony which they infuse into all 
its connections, the family would cease to exist, or at least would be only a 
rude and transient union, resembling the intercourse of animals. Grod has 
happily gifted all his creatures with a marvellous instinct of self-preservation. 
Guided by that instinct, families and society repudiate with indignation those 
degrading ideas which, blasting by their fatal breath all the germs of life, 
breaking all ties, upsetting all laws, make both of them retrograde towards the 
most abject barbarism, and finish by scattering their members like dust before 
the wind. 

The repeated lessons of experience ought to have convinced certain philoso- 
phers that these ideas and feelings, engraven on the heart of man by the finger 
of the Author of nature, cannot be eradicated by declamation or sophistry. If 
a few ephemeral triumphs have occasionally flattered their pride, and made them 
conceive false hopes of the result of their efforts, the course of events has soon 
shown them, that to pride themselves on these triumphs was to act like a man 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



67 



who, on account of having succeeded in infusing unnatural sentiments into the 
hearts of a few mothers, would natter himself that he has banished maternal 
love from the world. Society (I do not mean the populace or the commonalty) 
— society will be religious, even at the risk of being superstitious ; if it does 
not believe in reasonable things, it will in extravagant ones ; and if it have not 
a divine religion, it will have a human one : to suppose the contrary, is to 
dream; to struggle against this tendency, is to struggle against an eternal law; 
to attempt to restrain it, is to attempt to restrain with a weak arm a body 
launched with an immense force — the arm will be destroyed, but the body will 
continue its course. Men may call this superstition, fanaticism, the result of 
error ; but to talk thus can only serve to console them for their failure. 

Since, then, religion is a real necessity, we have therein an explanation of the 
phenomenon which history and experience present to us, namely, that religion 
never wholly disappears, and that when changes take place, the two rival reli- 
gions, during their struggles, more or less protracted, occupy successively the 
same ground. The consequence is, that Protestantism cannot entirely disappear 
unless another religion takes its place. Now, as in the actual state of civiliza- 
tion, no religion can replace it but the Catholic, it is evident that Protestant 
sects will continue to occupy, with more or less variation, the countries which 
they have gained. 

Indeed, how is it possible, in the present state of civilization among Protest- 
ant nations, that the follies of the Koran, or the absurdities of idolatry, should 
have any chance of success among them ? The spirit of Christianity circu- 
lates in the veins of modern society; its seal is set upon all legislation; its 
light is shed upon all branches of knowledge ; its phraseology is found in all 
languages ; its precepts regulate morals ; habits and manners have assumed its 
form ; the fine arts breathe its perfume, and all the monuments of genius are 
full of its inspirations. Christianity, in a word, pervades all parts of that great, 
varied, and fertile civilization, which is the glory of modern society. How 
then, is it possible for a religion entirely to disappear which possesses, with the 
most venerable antiquity, so many claims to gratitude, so many endearing ties, 
and so many glorious recollections ? How could it give place, among Christian 
nations, to one of those religions which, at the first glance, show the finger of 
man, and indicate, as their distinctive mark, degradation and debasement? 
Although the essential principle of Protestantism saps the foundations of the 
Christian religion, although it disfigures its beauty, and lowers its sublimity, 
yet the remains which it preserves of Christianity, its idea of God, and its 
maxims of morality, raise it far above all the systems of philosophy, and all 
the other religions of the world. 

If, then, Protestantism has preserved some shadow of the Christian religion, 
it was because, looking at the condition of the nations who took part in the 
schism, it was impossible for the Christian name wholly to disappear ; and not 
on account of any principle of life contained in the bosom of the pretended 
Reformation. On the other hand, consider the efforts of politicians, the natural 
attachment of ministers to their own interests, the illusions of pride which flat- 
ter men with the freedom they will enjoy in the absence of all authority, the 
remains of old prejudices, the power of education, and such like causes, and you 
will find a complete solution of the question. Then you will no longer be sur- 
prised that Protestantism continues to retain possession of many of those coun- 
tries where it unfortunately became deeply rooted. 



68 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE POSITIVE DOCTRINES OF PROTESTANTISM REPUGNANT TO THE 
INSTINCT OF CIVILIZATION. 

The best proof of the extreme weakness of Protestantism, considered as a 
body of doctrine, is the little influence which its positive doctrines have exer- 
cised in European civilization. I call its positive doctrines those which it 
attempts to establish as its own ; and I distinguish them thus from its other 
doctrines, which I call negative, because they are nothing but the negation of 
authority. The latter found favor on account of their conformity with the 
inconstancy and changeableness of the human mind ; but the others, which have 
not the same means of success, have all disappeared with their authors, and are 
now plunged in oblivion. The only part of Christianity which has been pre- 
served among Protestants, is that which was necessary to prevent European 
civilization from losing among them its nature and character ; and this is the 
reason why the doctrines which had too direct a tendency to alter the nature 
of this civilization have been repudiated, we should rather say, despised by it. 

There is a circumstance here well worthy of attention, and which has not 
perhaps been noticed, viz. the fate of the doctrine held by the first reformers 
with respect to free-will. It is well known that one of the first and most im- 
portant errors of Luther and Calvin consisted in denying free-will. We find 
this fatal doctrine professed in the works which they have left us. Does it not 
seem that this doctrine ought to have preserved its credit among the Protestants, 
and that they ought to have fiercely maintained it, since such is commonly the 
case with errors which serve as a nucleus in the formation of a sect ? It seems, 
also, that Protestantism being widely spread, and deeply rooted in several 
countries of Europe, this fatalist doctrine ought to have exercised a strong influ- 
ence on the legislation of Protestant nations. Wonderful as it is, such has not 
been the case ; European moralists have despised it ; legislation has not adopted 
it as a basis ; civilization has not allowed itself to be directed by a principle 
which sapped all the foundations of morality, and which, if once applied to 
morals and laws, would have substituted for European civilization and dignity 
the barbarism and debasement of Mahometanism. 

There is no doubt that this fatal doctrine has perverted some individuals ; it 
has been adopted by sects more or less numerous ; and it cannot be denied that 
it has affected the morality of some nations. But it is also certain, that, in the 
generality of the great human family, governments, tribunals, administration, 
legislation, science, and morals, have not listened to this horrible doctrine of 
Luther, — a doctrine which strips man of his free will, which makes G-od the 
author of sin, which charges the Creator with the responsibility of all the 
crimes of His creatures, and represents Him as a tyrant, by affirming that His 
precepts are impossible ; a doctrine which monstrously confounds the ideas of 
good and evil, and removes all stimulus to good deeds, by teaching that faith 
is sufficient for salvation, and that all the good works of the just are only sins. 

Public opinion, good sense, and morality here side with Catholicity. Those 
even who in theory embrace these fatal religious doctrines, usually reject them 
in practice ; this is because Catholic instruction on these important points has 
made so deep an impression on them ; because so strong an instinct of civiliza- 
tion has been communicated to European society by the Catholic religion. 
Thus the Church, by repudiating the destructive errors taught by Protestantism, 
preserved society from being debased by these fatalist doctrines. The Church 
formed a barrier against the despotism which is enthroned wherever the sense 
of dignity is lost; she was a fence against the demoralization which always 
spreads whenever men think themselves bound by blind necessity, as by an 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



69 



iron chain ; she also freed the human mind from the state of abjection into 
which it falls whenever it thinks itself deprived of the government of its own 
conduct, and of the power of influencing the course of events. In condemning 
those errors of Luther, which were the bond of Protestantism at its birth, the 
Pope raised the alarm against an irruption of barbarism into the order of ideas ; 
he saved morality, laws, public order, and society; the Vatican, by securing 
the noble sentiment of liberty in the sanctuary of conscience, preserved the 
dignity of man ; by struggling against Protestant ideas, by defending the sacred 
deposit confided to it by its Divine Master, the Roman See became the tutelary 
divinity of future civilization. 

Reflect on these great truths, understand them thoroughly, you who speak 
of religious disputes with cold indifference, with apparent mockery and pity, as 
if they were only scholastic puerilities. Nations do not live on bread alone; 
they live also on ideas, on maxims, which, converted into spiritual aliment, give 
them greatness, strength, and energy, or, on the contrary, weaken them, reduce 
them, and condemn them to stupidity. Look over the face of the globe, examine 
the periods of human history, compare times with times, and nations with 
nations, and you will see that the Church, by giving so much importance to the 
preservation of these transcendent truths, by accepting no compromise on this 
point, has understood and realized better than any other teacher, the elevated 
and salutary maxim, that truth ought to reign in the world ; that on the order 
of ideas depends the order of events, and that when these great problems are 
called in question, the destinies of humanity are involved. 

Let us recapitulate what we have said ; the essential principle of Protestantism 
is one of destruction ; this is the cause of its incessant variations, of its dissolu- 
tion and annihilation. As a particular religion it no longer exists, for it has no 
peculiar faith, no positive character, no government, nothing that is essential to 
form an existence ; Protestantism is only a negative. If there is any thing to 
be found in it of a positive nature, it is nothing more than vestiges and ruins ; 
all is without force, without action, without the spirit of life. It cannot show 
an edifice raised by its own hands; it cannot, like Catholicity, stand in the 
midst of its vast works and say, " These are mine." Protestantism can only sit 
down on a heap of ruins, and say with truth, " I have made this pile." 

As long as sectarian fanaticism lasted, as long as this flame, enkindled by 
furious declamation, was kept alive by unhappy circumstances, Protestantism 
showed a certain degree of force, which, although it was not the sign of vigor- 
ous life, at least indicated the convulsive energy of delirium. But that period 
has passed, the action of time has dispersed the elements that fed the flame, 
and none of the attempts which have been made to give to the Reformation the 
character of a work of G-od, have been able to conceal the fact that it was the 
work of human passions. Let us not be deceived by the efforts which are now 
being made ; what is acting under our eyes is not living Protestantism, it is the 
operation of false philosophy, perhaps of policy, sometimes of sordid interest 
disguised under the name of policy. Every one knows how powerful Protest- 
antism was in exciting disturbances and causing disunion. It is on this account 
that evil-minded men search in the bed of this exhausted torrent for some 
remains of its impure waters, and knowing them to contain a deadly poison, 
present them to the unsuspecting in a golden cup. 

But it is in vain for weak man to struggle against the arm of the Almighty, 
God will not abandon His work. Notwithstanding all his attempts to deface 
the work of G-od, man cannot blot out the eternal characters which distinguish 
truth from error. Truth in itself is strong and robust : as it is the ensemble 
of the relations which unite things together, it is strongly connected with them, 
and cannot be separated either by the efforts of man or by the revolution of 
time. Error, on the contrary, the lying image of the great ties which bind to- 



70 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



gether the compact mass of the universe, stretches over its usurped domain like 
those dead branches of the forest which, devoid of sap, afford neither freshness 
nor verdure, and only serve to impede the advance of the traveller. 

Confiding men, do not allow yourselves to be seduced by brilliant appear- 
ances, pompous discourse, or false activity. Truth is open, modest, without 
suspicion, because it is pure and strong ; error is hypocritical and ostentatious, 
because it is false and weak. Truth resembles a woman of real beauty, who, 
conscious of her charms, despises the affectation of ornament ; error, on the 
contrary, paints and ornaments herself, because she is ugly, without expression, 
without grace, without dignity. Perhaps you may be pleased with its laborious 
activity. Know, then, that it has no strength but when it is the rallying cry of 
a faction ; then, indeed, it is rapid in action and fertile in violent measures. It 
is like the meteor which explodes and vanishes, leaving behind it nothing but 
darkness, death, and destruction; truth, on the contrary, like the sun, sends 
forth its bright and steady beams, fertilizes with its genial warmth, and sheds on 
every side life, joy, and beauty. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE EFFECTS WHICH THE INTRODUCTION OF PROTESTANTISM INTO 
SPAIN WOULD HAVE PRODUCED. 

In order to judge of the real effect which the introduction of Protestant 
doctrines would have had in Spain, we shall do well, in the first place, to take a 
survey of the present state of religion in Europe. In spite of the confusion of 
ideas which is one of the prevailing characteristics of the age, it is undeniable 
that the spirit of infidelity and irreligion has lost much of its strength, and that 
where it still exists it has merged into indifference, instead of preserving its 
systematic form of the last century. With the lapse of time declamation 
ceases ; men grow tired of continually repeating the same insulting language : 
their minds resist the intolerance and bad faith of sects ; systems betray their 
emptiness, opinions their erroneousness, judgments their precipitation, and rea- 
sonings their want of exactitude. Time shows their counterfeit intentions, their 
deceptive statements, the littleness of their ideas, and the mischievousness of 
their projects ; truth begins to recover its empire, things regain their real names, 
and, thanks to the new direction of the public mind, that which before was con- 
sidered innocent and generous is now looked upon as criminal and vile. The 
deceitful masks are taken off, and falsehood is discovered surrounded by the dis- 
credit which ought always to have accompanied it. 

Irreligious ideas, like all those which are prevalent in an advanced state of 
society, would not, and could not be confined to mere speculation ; they invaded 
the domain of practice, and labored to gain the upper hand in all branches of 
administration and politics. But the revolution which they produced in society 
became fatal to themselves ; for there is nothing which better exposes the faults 
and errors of a system, and undeceives men on the subject, than the touchstone 
of experience. There is in our minds a certain power of viewing an object 
under a variety of aspects, and an unfortunate aptitude for supporting the most 
extravagant proposition by a multitude of sophisms. In mere disputation, it is 
difiicult for the most reasoning minds to keep clear of the snares of sophistry. 
But when we come to experience, it is otherwise ; the mind is silent, and facts 
speak; and if the experience has been on a large scale, and applied to objects 
of great interest and importance, it is difiicult for the most specious arguments 
to counteract the convincing eloquence of the result. Hence it is that a man 
of much experience obtains an instinct so sure and delicate, that when a system 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



71 



is but explained he can point out all its inconveniences. Inexperience, pre- 
sumptuous and prejudiced, appeals to argument in support of its doctrines; but 
good sense, that precious and inestimable quality, shakes its head, shrugs its 
shoulders, and with a tranquil smile leaves its prediction to be tested by time. 

It is not necessary now to insist on the practical results of those doctrines of 
which infidelity was the motto; we have said enough on that subject. Suffice 
it to say, that those same men who seem to belong to the last century by their 
principles, interests, recollections, or for other reasons, have been obliged to 
modify their doctrines, to limit their principles, to palliate their propositions, to 
cool the warmth and passion of their invectives; and when they wish to give a 
mark of their esteem and veneration for those writers who were the delight of 
their youth, they are compelled to declare " that those men were great philoso- 
phers, but philosophers of the cabinet ;" as if in reality what they call the 
knowledge of the cabinet was not the most dangerous ignorance. 

It is certain that these attempts have had the effect of throwing discredit on 
irreligion as a system. If people do not regard it with horror, at least they 
look upon it with mistrust. Irreligion has labored in all the branches of science, 
in the vain hope that the heavens would cease to relate the glories of God, that 
the earth would disown Him who laid its foundations, and that all nature would 
give testimony against the Lord who gave it existence and life. These same 
labors have banished the scandalous division which had begun between religion 
and science ; so that the ancient accents of the man of Hus have again resounded, 
without dishonor to science, in the mouths of men in the nineteenth century ; 
and what shall we say of the triumphs of religion in all that is noble, tender, 
and sublime on earth ? How grand are the operations of Providence displayed 
therein ! Admirable dispensation ! The mysterious hand which governs the 
universe seems to hold in reserve for every great crisis of society an extraordi- 
nary man. At the proper moment this man presents himself; he advances, 
himself ignorant whither he is going, but he advances with a firm step towards 
the accomplishment of the high mission for which Providence has destined 
him. 

Atheism was bathing France in a sea of tears and blood ; an unknown man 
silently traverses the ocean. While the violence of the tempest rends the sails 
of his vessel, he listens attentively to the hurricane — he is lost in the contem- 
plation of the majesty of the heavens. Wandering in the solitudes of America, 
he asks of the wonders of creation the name of their Author ; the thunder on 
the confines of the desert, the low murmuring of the forests, and the beauties 
of nature answer him with canticles of love and harmony. The view of a soli- 
tary cross reveals to him mysterious secrets ; the traces of an unknown mis- 
sionary awaken important recollections which connect the new world with the 
old; a monument in ruins, the hut of a savage, excite in his mind thoughts 
which penetrate to the foundations of society and to the heart of man. Intoxi- 
cated with these spectacles, his mind full of sublime conceptions, and his heart 
inundated with the charms of so much beauty, this man returns to his native 
soil. What does he find there ? The bloody traces of Atheism ; the ruins and 
ashes of ancient temples devoured by the flames or destroyed by violence ; the 
remains of a multitude of innocent victims, buried in the graves which for- 
merly afforded an asylum to persecuted Christians. He observes, however, that 
something is in agitation; he sees that religion is about to redescend upon 
France, like consolation upon the unfortunate, or the breath of life upon a 
corpse. From that moment he hears on all sides a concert of celestial har- 
mony ; the inspirations of meditation and solitude revive and ferment in his 
great soul ; transported out of himself, and ravished into ecstasy, he sings with 
a tongue of fire the glories of religion, he reveals the delicacy and beauty of the 
relations between religion and nature, and in surpassing language he points out 



72 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



to astonished men the mysterious golden chain which connects the heavens and 
the earth. That man was Chateaubriand. 

It must, however, be confessed, that the confusion which has been intro- 
duced into ideas cannot be corrected in a short time, and that it is not easy to 
eradicate the deep traces of the ravages of irreligion. Men's minds, it is true, 
are tired of the irreligious system; society, which had lost its balance, is 
generally ill at ease ; the family feels its ties relaxed, and individuals sigh after 
a ray of light, a drop of hope and consolation. But where shall the world find 
the remedy which is wanting ? Will it follow the best road — the only road ? 
Will it re-enter the fold of the Catholic Church ? Alas ! God alone knows the 
secrets of the future ; He alone has clearly unfolded before His eyes the great 
events which are no doubt awaiting humanity. He alone knows what will be 
the result of that activity, of that energy, which again urges men to the exami- 
nation of great political and religious questions ; and He alone knows what, to 
future generations, will be the result of the triumphs obtained by religion, in 
sfc ? fine arts, in literature, in science, in politics, in all the operations carried on 
by the human mind. 

As to us, carried away as we are by the rapid and precipitate course of revo- 
lution, hardly have we time to cast a fleeting glance upon the chaos in which 
our country is involved. What can we confidently predict ? All that we can 
be sure of is, that we are in an age of disquietude, of agitation, of transition ; 
that the multiplied examples and warnings of so many disappointed expecta- 
tions, the fruits of fearful revolutions and unheard-of catastrophes, have every- 
where thrown discredit upon irreligious and disorganizing doctrines, without 
having established the legitimate empire of true religion. Hearts sick of so 
many misfortunes are willingly open to hope ; but minds are in a state of great 
uncertainty as to the future : perhaps they even anticipate a new series of 
calamities. Owing to revolutions, to the efforts of industry, to the activity and 
extension of commerce, to the progress and prodigious diffusion of printing, to 
scientific discoveries, to the ease, rapidity, and universality of communication, 
to the taste for travelling, to the dissolving action of Protestantism, of incre- 
dulity, and skepticism, the human mind certainly now presents one of the most 
singular phases of its history. Reason, imagination, and the heart are in a state 
of agitation, of movement, and of extraordinary development, and show us at 
the same time the most singular contrasts, the most ridiculous extravagances, 
and the most absurd contradictions. Observe the sciences, and you will no 
longer find those lengthened labors, that indefatigable patience, that calm and 
tranquil progress, which characterized these studies at other epochs ; but you 
will find there a spirit of observation, and a tendency to place questions in that 
transcendental point of view where may be discovered the relations subsisting 
between them, the ties by which they are connected, and the way in which they 
throw light upon each other. Questions of religion, of politics, of legislation, 
of morals, of government, are all mingled, stand prominently forward, and give 
to the horizon of science a grandeur and immensity which it did not previously 
possess. This progress, this confusion, this chaos, if you like to call it so, is a 
fact which must be taken into account in studying the spirit of the age, in 
examining the religious condition of the time ; for it is not the work of a single 
man, or the effect of accident ; it is the result of a multitude of causes, the fruit 
of a great number of facts; it is an expression of the present state of intelli- 
gence ; a symptom of strength and disease, an announcement of change and of 
transition, perhaps a sign of consolation, perhaps a presage of misfortune. And 
who has not observed the fertility of imagination and unbounded reach of 
thought in that literature, so various, so irregular, and so vague, but at the 
same time so rich in fine images, in delicate feeling, and in bold and generous 
thought ? You may talk as much as you please of the debasement of science, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



73 



of the falling off in study. You may speak in a tone of derision of the lights 
of the age, and turn with regret to ages more studious and more learned ; there 
will be some exaggeration, truth and error, in all this, as there always is in 
declamation of this kind ; but whatever may be the degree of utility belonging 
to the present labors of the human mind, never, perhaps, was there a time when 
it displayed more activity and energy, never was it agitated by a movement so 
general, so lively, so various, and never, perhaps, did it desire, with a more 
excusable curiosity and impatience, to raise a part of the veil which covers the 
boundless future. What will be able to govern elements so powerful and so 
opposite ? What can calm this tempestuous sea ? What will give the union, 
the connection, the consistency necessary to form, out of these repulsive and 
discordant elements, a whole compact and capable of resisting the action of 
time ? Will this be done by Protestantism, with its fundamental principle 
which establishes and diffuses and sanctions the dissolving principle of private 
interpretation in matters of religion, and realizes this unhappy notion by circu- 
lating among all classes of society copies of the Bible ? 

Nations numerous, proud of their power, vain of their knowledge, rendered 
dissipated by pleasure, refined by luxury, continually exposed to the powerful 
influence of the press, and possessing means of communication which would 
have appeared fabulous to their ancestors ; nations in whom all the violent pas- 
sions have an object, all intrigues an existence, all corruptions a veil, all crimes 
a title, all errors an advocate, all interests a support ; nations which, warned 
and deceived, still vacillate in a state of dreadful uncertainty between truth and 
falsehood; sometimes looking at the torch of truth as if they meant to be 
guided by its light, and then again seduced by an ignis fatuus; sometimes 
making an effort to rule the storm, and then abandoning themselves to its vio- 
lence ; modern nations show us a picture as extraordinary as it is interesting, 
where hopes, fears, prognostics, and conjectures have free scope, and nobody 
can pretend to predict with accuracy, and the wise man must await in silence 
the denouement marked out in the secret decrees of God, where alone are clearly 
written the events of all time, and the future destinies of men. 

But it may be easily understood that Protestantism, on account of its essen- 
tially dissolving nature, is incapable of producing any thing in morals or reli- 
gion to increase the happiness of nations, for it is impossible for this happiness 
to exist as long as men's minds are at war on the most important questions 
which can occupy them. 

When the observer, amid this chaos and obscurity, seeks for a ray of light 
to illuminate the world — for a powerful principle capable of putting an end to 
so much confusion and anarchy, and of bringing back men's minds to the path 
of truth, Catholicity immediately presents herself to him, as the only source of 
all these benefits. When we consider with what eclat and with what power 
Catholicity maintains herself against all the unprecedented attempts which are, 
made to destroy her, our hearts are filled with hope and consolation ; and we 
feel inclined to hail this divine religion, and to congratulate her on the new 
triumph which she is about to achieve on earth. 

There was a time when Europe, inundated by a torrent of barbarians, saw at 
once overwhelmed all the monuments of ancient civilization and refinement. 
Legislators and their laws, the empire and its power and splendor, philosophers 
and the sciences, the arts and their chef-d' oeuvres, all disappeared; and those 
immense regions, where had flourished all the civilization and refinement that 
had been gained during so many ages, were suddenly plunged into ignorance 
and barbarism. Nevertheless, the spark of light which had appeared to the 
world in Palestine, continued to shine amid the chaos : in vain did whirlwinds 
threaten to extinguish it ; kept alive by the breath of the Eternal, it continued 
to shine. Ages rolled away, and it appeared with greater brilliancy; and 
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74 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



when, perchance, the nations only expected a beam of light to guide them in 
the darkness, they found a resplendent sun, everywhere diffusing life and light : 
and who shall say that there is not reserved for her in the secrets of the Eter- 
nal, another triumph more difficult, but not less useful, not less brilliant ? If 
in other times that religion instructed ignorance, civilized barbarism, polished 
rudeness, softened ferocity, and preserved society from being always the prey 
of the fiercest brutality and the most degrading stupidity, will it be less glorious 
for her to correct ideas, to harmonize and refine feelings, to establish the eternal 
principles of society, to curb the passions, to remove animosities, to remove ex- 
cesses, to govern all minds and hearts ? How honorable will it be to her, if, 
while regulating all things, and unceasingly stimulating all kinds of knowledge 
and improvement, she can inspire with a proper spirit of moderation that society 
which so many elements, devoid of central attraction, threaten every moment 
with dissolution and death ! 

It is not given to man to penetrate the future ; but in the same way as the 
physical world would be broken up by a terrible catastrophe, if it were deprived 
for a moment of the fundamental principle which gives unity, order, and con- 
cert to the various movements of the system ; in the same way, if society, full 
as it is of motion, of communication, and life, were not placed under the direc- 
tion of a constant and universal regulating principle, we could not fix our eyes 
on the lot of future generations without the greatest alarm. 

There is, however, a fact which is consoling in the highest degree, viz. the 
wonderful progress which Catholicity has made in different countries. It is 
gaining strength in France and Belgium : the obstinacy with which it is com- 
bated in the north of Europe shows how much it is feared. In England its 
progress has been recently so great that it would not be credited without the 
most irresistible evidence ; and in the foreign missions it has shown an extent 
of enterprise and fruitfulness, worthy of the time of its greatest ascendency and 
power. 

When other nations tend towards unity, shall we commit the gross mistake 
of adopting schism ? at a time when other nations would be happy to find within 
their bosoms a vital principle capable of restoring the power which incredulity 
has destroyed, shall Spain, which preserves Catholicity, and alone possesses it 
full and complete, allow the germ of death to be introduced into her bosom, 
thereby rendering impossible the cure of her evils, or rather entailing on her- 
self complete and certain ruin ? Amid the moral regeneration towards which 
nations are advancing, seeking to quit the painful position in which they have 
been placed by irreligious doctrines, is it possible to overlook the immense ad- 
vantage which Spain still preserves over most of them ? Spain is one of those 
least affected by the gangrene of irreligion ; she still preserves religious unity, 
that inestimable inheritance of a long line of ages. Is it possible to overlook 
the advantage of that unity if properly made use of, that unity which is mixed 
up with all our glories, which awakens such noble recollections, and which may 
be made so wonderful an instrument in the regeneration of social order ? 

If I am asked my opinion of the nearness of the danger, and if I think the 
present attempts of Protestants have any probability of success, I must draw a 
distinction in my reply. Protestantism is extremely weak, both on account of 
its own nature, and of its age and decaying condition. In endeavoring to intro- 
duce itself into Spain, it will have to contend with an adversary full of life and 
strength, and deeply rooted in the soil. This is the reason why I think that 
its direct action is not to be feared j and yet, if it should succeed in establishing 
itself in any part of our country, however limited may be its domain, it is sure 
to produce fearful results. It is evident that we shall then have in the midst 
of us a new apple of discord, and it is not difficult to foresee that collisions will 
frequently arise. Protestantism in Spain, besides its intrinsic weakness, will 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



75 



labor under the disadvantage of not finding its natural aliment. Hence it will 
be obliged to take advantage of any support that is offered ; it will immediately 
become the point of reunion for the discontented ; and although failing in its 
intended object, it will succeed in becoming the nucleus of new parties and the 
banner of factions. Scandal, strife, demoralization, troubles, and perhaps catas- 
trophes, — such will be the immediate and infallible results of the introduction 
of Protestantism among us. On this point I appeal to the candid opinion of 
every man who is well acquainted with Spain. But this is not all : the ques- 
tion is enlarged, and acquires an incalculable importance, if we consider it with 
reference to foreign politics. What a lever will be afforded to foreigners for all 
kinds of attempts in our unhappy country ! How gladly will those, who are 
perhaps on the look-out for such an aid, avail themselves of it ! 

There is in Europe a nation remarkable for her immense power, and worthy 
of respect on account of the great progress which she has made in the arts and 
sciences ; a nation that holds in her hands powerful means of action in all parts 
of the world, and knows how to use them with wonderful discretion and saga- 
city. As that nation has taken the lead in modern times in passing through 
all the phases of political and religious revolution, and has seen, during fearful 
convulsions, the passions in all their nakedness, and crime in all its forms, she 
is better acquainted than all others with their causes. 

Not misled by the vain names under which, at such periods, the lowest pas- 
sions and the most sordid interests disguise themselves, she is too much on her 
guard to allow the troubles which have inundated other countries with tears 
and blood, to be easily excited within herself. Her internal peace is not dis- 
turbed by the agitation and heat of disputes ; although she may expect to have 
to encounter, sooner or later, difficulties and embarrassments, she enjoys, in the 
mean time, the tranquillity which is secured to her by her constitution, her 
manners, her riches, — and, above all, by the ocean which surrounds her. Placed 
in so advantageous a position, that nation watches the progress of others, for the 
purpose of attaching them to her car by golden chains, if they are simple enough 
to listen to her flattery ; at least she attempts to hinder their advance, when a 
noble independence is about to free them from her influence. Always attentive 
to her own aggrandizement, by means of commerce and the arts, and by a policy 
eminently mercantile, she hides her self-interest under all sorts of disguises ; 
and although religion and politics, where she has to do with another people, are 
quite indifferent to her, she knows how to make an adroit use of these powerful 
arms, to make friends, to defeat her enemies, and to enclose all within the net 
of commerce, which she is always extending in all quarters of the world. Her 
sagacity must necessarily have perceived how much progress she will have 
made in adding Spain to the number of her colonies, when she has persuaded 
the Spanish people to fraternize with her in religion ; not so much on account 
of the sympathy which such a fraternization would establish between them, as 
because she would find therein a sure method of stripping the Spanish people 
of that peculiar character and grave appearance which distinguishes them from 
all others, by depriving them of the only national and regenerative idea which 
remains to them after so many convulsions ; from that moment, in truth, Spain, 
that proud nation, would be rendered accessible to all kinds of foreign impres- 
sions, docile and pliable in bending to all opinions, and subject to the interests 
of her astute protectors. Let it not be forgotten that there is no other nation 
that conceives her plans with so much foresight, prepares them with so much 
prudence, executes them with so much ability and perseverance. As she has 
remained since her great revolutions, that is, since the end of the seventeenth 
century, in a settled condition, and entirely free from the convulsions under- 
gone since that time by other European nations, she has been able to follow a 
regular political system, both internal and external; and her politicians have 



76 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



been formed to the perfect science of government, by constantly inheriting the 
experience and views of their predecessors. Her statesmen well know how im- 
portant it is to be prepared beforehand for every event. They deeply study 
what may aid or impede them in other nations. They go out of the sphere of 
politics : they penetrate to the heart of every nation over which they propose 
to extend their influence : they examine what are the conditions of its exist- 
ence; what is its vital principle; what are the causes of the strength and 
energy of every people. 

During the autumn of 1805, Pitt gave a dinner in the country to some of his 
friends. While thus engaged, a despatch was brought to him announcing the 
surrender of Mack at Ulm, with 40,000 men, and the march of Napoleon on 
Vienna. Pitt communicated the fatal news to his friends, who cried out, " All 
is lost; there is no longer any resource against him." "There is one still 
left," replied the minister, " if I can excite a national war in Europe ; and that 
war must begin in Spain." " Yes, gentlemen," he added, " Spain will be the 
first country to commence the patriotic war which shall give liberty to Europe." 
Such was the importance attributed by this profound statesman to a national 
idea ; he expected from it what the strength of all the governments could not 
effect, the downfall of Napoleon, and the liberation of Europe. But it not un- 
commonly happens that the march of events is such, that these same national 
ideas, which one time were the powerful auxiliaries of ambitious cabinets, be- 
come, at another, the greatest obstacles; and then, instead of encouraging, it 
becomes their interest to extinguish them. As the nature of this work will not 
allow me to enter into the details of politics, I must content myself with appeal- 
ing to the judgment of those who have observed the line of conduct pursued by 
England during our war and revolution, since the death of Ferdinand VII. If 
we consider what the interests of that powerful nation require for the future, we 
may conjecture the part which she will take. 

The means of saving a nation, by delivering it from interested protectors, 
and of securing her real independence, are to be found in great and generous 
ideas, deeply rooted in the people ; in feelings engraved on their hearts by the 
action of time, by the influence of powerful institutions, by ancient manners 
and customs ; in fine, in that unity of religious thought, which makes a whole 
people as one man. Then the past is united with the present, the present is 
connected with the future ; then arises in the mind that enthusiasm which is 
the source of great deeds ; then are found disinterestedness, energy, and con- 
stancy; because ideas are fixed and elevated, because hearts are great and 
generous. 

It is not impossible that during one of the convulsions which disturb our 
unhappy country, men may arise amongst us blind enough to attempt to intro- 
duce the Protestant religion into Spain. We have had warnings enough to 
alarm us ; we have not forgotten events which showed plainly enough how far 
some would sometimes have gone, if the great majority of the nation had not 
restrained them by their disapprobation. We do not dread the outrages of the 
reign of Henry VIII. ; but what we do fear is, that advantage may be taken 
of a violent rupture with the Holy See, of the obstinacy and ambition of some 
ecclesiastics, of the pretext of establishing toleration in our country, or some 
other pretext, to attempt to introduce amongst us, in some shape or other, the 
doctrines of Protestantism. We certainly have no need of importing toleration 
from abroad ; it already exists amongst us so fully, that no one is afraid of be- 
ing disturbed on account of his religious opinions. What would be thus intro- 
duced and established in Spain, would be a new system of religion, provided 
with every thing necessary for gaining the upper hand ; and for weakening, and, 
if possible, destroying Catholicity. Then would resound in our ears, with a 
force constantly increasing, the fierce declamation which we have heard for 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



77 



several years ; the vain threatenings of a party who are delirious, because they 
are on the point of expiring. The aversion with which the nation regards 
the pretended Reformation, we have no doubt, would be looked upon as rebel- 
lion ; the pastorals of bishops would be treated as insidious persuasions, and 
the fervent zeal of our priests as sedition ; the unanimity of Catholics to pre- 
serve themselves from contagion would be denounced as a diabolical conspiracy, 
devised by intolerance and party spirit, and executed by ignorance and fanati- 
cism. Amid the efforts of the one party, and the resistance of the other, we 
should see enacted, in a greater or less degree, the scenes of times gone by; and 
although the spirit of moderation, which is one of the characteristics of this 
age, would not allow the perpetration of excesses which have stained the annals 
of other nations, they would not be without imitators. We must not forget 
that, with respect to religion in Spain, we cannot calculate on the coldness and 
indifference which other nations would now display on a similar occasion. With 
the latter, religious feelings have lost much of their force, but in Spain they 
are still deep, lively, and energetic j and if they were to come into open and 
avowed opposition to each other, the shock would be violent and general. Al- 
though we have witnessed lamentable scandals, and even fearful catastrophes in 
religious matters, yet, up to this time, perverse intentions have been always 
concealed by a mask, more or less transparent. Sometimes the attack was 
made against a person charged with political machinations ; sometimes against 
certain classes of citizens, who were accused of imaginary crimes. If, at times, 
the revolution exceeded its bounds, it was said that it was impossible to restrain 
it, and thus the vexations, the insults, the outrages heaped upon all that was 
most sacred upon earth, were only the inevitable results, and the work of a mob 
that nothing could restrain. There has always been more or less of disguise ; 
but if the dogmas of Catholicity were attacked deliberately, and with sang 
froid ; if the most important points of discipline were trodden underfoot; if 
the most august mysteries were turned into ridicule, and the most holy ceremo- 
nies treated with public contempt ; if church were raised against church, and 
pulpit against pulpit, what would be the result ? It is certain that minds would 
be very much exasperated j and if, as might be feared, alarming explosions did 
not ensue, at least religious controversy would assume a character so violent 
that we should believe ourselves transferred to the sixteenth century. 

It is a common thing among us for the principles which prevail in politics to 
be entirely opposed to those which rule in society; it may then easily happen 
that a religious principle, rejected by society, may find support among influen- 
tial statesmen. We should then see reproduced, under more important circum- 
stances, a phenomenon which we have witnessed for so many years, viz. govern- 
ments attempting to alter the course of society by force. This is one of the 
principal differences between our revolution and those of other countries ; it is, 
at the same time, a key which explains the greatest anomalies. Everywhere 
else revolutionary ideas took possession of society, and afterwards extended 
themselves to the sphere of politics ; with us they first ruled in the political 
sphere, and afterwards strove to descend into the social sphere ; society was far 
from being prepared for such innovations y this was the cause of shocks so vio- 
lent and so frequent. It is on account of this want of harmony that the govern- 
ment of Spain exercises so little influence over the people ; I mean by influence, 
that moral ascendency which does not require to be accompanied by the idea of 
force. There is no doubt that this is an evil, since it tends to weaken that 
authority which is indispensably necessary for all societies. But on more than 
one occasion it has been a great benefit. It is no slight advantage that in pre- 
sence of a senseless and inconstant government there is found a society full of 
calmness and wisdom, and that that society pursues its quiet and majestic 
march, while the government is carried away by rashness. We may expect 

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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



much from the right instinct of the Spanish nation, from her proverbial gravity, 
which so many misfortunes have only augmented, and from that fact, which 
teaches her so well how to discern the true path to happiness, by rendering her 
deaf to the insidious suggestions of those who seek to lead her astray. Al- 
though for so many years, owing to a fatal combination of circumstances, and a 
want of harmony between the social and political order, Spain has not been 
able to obtain a government which understands her feelings and instincts, fol- 
lows her inclinations, and promotes her prosperity, we still cherish the hope that 
the day will come when from her own bosom, so fertile in future life, will come 
forth the harmony which she seeks, and the equilibrium which she has lost. 
In the mean time, it is of the highest importance that all men who have a 
Spanish heart in their breasts, and who do not wish to see the vitals of their 
country torn to pieces, should unite and act in concert to preserve her from the 
genius of evil. Their unanimity will prevent the seeds of perpetual discord 
from being scattered upon our soil, will ward off this additional calamity, and 
will preserve from destruction those precious germs, whence may arise, with 
renovated vigor, our civilization, which has been so much injured by disastrous 
events. 

The soul is overwhelmed with painful apprehensions at the thought that a day 
may come when religious unity will be banished from among us ; that unity 
which is identified with our habits, our customs, our manners, our laws j which 
guarded the cradle of our monarchy in the cavern of Covadonga, and which 
was the emblem on our standard during a struggle of eight centuries against 
the formidable crescent ; that unity which developed and illustrated our civili- 
zation in times of the greatest difficulty; that unity which followed our terrible 
tercios, when they imposed silence upon Europe ) which led our sailors when 
they discovered the new world, and guided them when they for the first time 
made the circuit of the globe ; that unity which sustains our soldiers in their 
most heroic exploits, and which, at a recent period, gave the climax to their 
many glorious deeds in the downfall of Napoleon. You who condemn so rashly 
the work of ages ; you who offer so many insults to the Spanish nation, and 
who treat as barbarism and ignorance the regulating principle of our civiliza- 
tion, do you know what it is you insult ? Do you know what inspired the 
genius of Gonzalva, of Ferdinando Cortez, of the conqueror of Lepanto ? Do 
not the shades of Garcilazo, of Herrara, of Ercilla, of Fray Luis de Leon, of 
Cervantes, of Lope de Yega, inspire you with any respect ? Can you venture 
to break the tie which connects us with them, to make us the unworthy poste- 
rity of these great men ? Do you wish to place an impassable barrier between 
their faith and ours, between their manners and ours, to make us destroy all our 
traditions, and to forget our most inspiring recollections ? Do you wish to pre- 
serve the great and august monuments of our ancestors' piety among us only as 
a severe and eloquent reproach ? Will you consent to see dried up the most 
abundant fountains to which we can have recourse to revive literature, to 
strengthen science, to reorganize legislation, to re-establish the spirit of nation- 
ality, to restore our glory, and replace this nation in the high position which 
her virtues merit, by restoring to her the peace and happiness which she seeks 
with so much anxiety, and which her heart requires ? 



79 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CATHOLICITY AND PROTESTANTISM IN RELATION TO SOCIAL PROGRESS. 
PRELIMINARY COUP D'CEIL. 

After having placed Catholicity and Protestantism in contrast, in a religious 
point of view, in the picture which I have just drawn ; after having shown the 
superiority of the one over the other, not only in certainty, but also in all that 
regards the instincts, the feelings, the ideas, the characteristics of the human 
mind, it seems to me proper to approach another question, certainly not less 
important, but much less understood, and in the examination of which we shall 
have to contend against strong antipathies, and to dissipate many prejudices and 
errors. Amid the difficulties by which the question that I am about to under- 
take is surrounded, I am supported by a strong hope that the interest of the 
subject, and its analogy with the scientific taste of the age, will invite a perusal; 
and that I shall thereby avoid the danger which commonly threatens those who 
write in favor of the Catholic religion, that of being judged without being 
heard. The question may be stated thus : " When we compare Catholicity and 
Protestantism, which do we find the most favorable to real liberty, to the real 
progress of nations, to the cause of civilization V* Liberty ! This is one of 
those words which are as generally employed as they are little understood; 
words which, because they contain a certain vague idea, easily perceived, pre- 
sent the deceptive appearance of perfect clearness, while, on account of the 
multitude and variety of objects to which they apply, they are susceptible of a 
variety of meanings, and, consequently, are extremely difficult to comprehend. 
Who can reckon the number of applications made of the word liberty ? There 
is always found in this word a certain radical idea, but the modifications and 
graduations to which the idea is subject are infinite. The air circulates with 
liberty ; we move the soil around the plant, to enable it to grow and increase 
with liberty ; we clean out the bed of a stream to allow it to flow with liberty ; 
when we set free a fish in a net, or a bird in a cage, we give them their liberty; 
we treat a friend with freedom ; we have free methods, free thoughts, free 
expressions, free successions, free will, free actions; a prisoner has no liberty; 
nor have boys, girls, or married people ; a man behaves with greater freedom in 
a foreign country ; soldiers are not free ; there are men free from conscription, 
from contributions ; we have free votes, free acknowledgments, free interpreta- 
tion, free evidence ; freedom of commerce, of instruction, of the press, of con- 
science; civil freedom, and political freedom; we have freedom just, unjust, 
rational, irrational, moderate, excessive, limited, licentious, seasonable, unsea- 
sonable. But I need not pursue the endless enumeration. It seemed to me 
necessary to dwell upon it for a moment, even at the risk of fatiguing the 
reader ; perhaps the remembrance of all this may serve to engrave deeply on 
our minds the truth, that when, in conversation, in writing, in public discus- 
sions, in laws, this word is so frequently employed as applied to objects of the 
highest importance, it is necessary to consider maturely the number and nature 
of the ideas which it embraces in the particular case, the meaning that the sub- 
ject needs, the modifications which the circumstances require, and the precaution 
demanded in the case. 

Whatever may be the acceptation in which the word liberty is taken, it is 
apparent that it always implies the absence of a cause restraining the exercise 
of a power. Hence it follows that, in order to fix in each case the real meaning 
of the word, it is indispensable to pay attention to the circumstances as well as 
to the nature of the power, the exercise of which is to be prevented or limited, 
without losing sight of the various objects to which it applies, the conditions 
of its exercise, as also the character, power, and extent of the means which are 



80 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



employed to restrain it. To explain this matter, let it be proposed to form a 
judgment on the proposition, " Man ought to enjoy liberty of thought." 

It is here affirmed that freedom of thought in man ought not to be restrained ; 
but do you speak of physical force exercised directly on thought itself? In 
that case the proposition is entirely vain ; for as such an application of force is 
impossible, it is useless to say that it ought not to be employed. Do you mean 
to say that it is not allowable to restrain the expression of thought ; that is to 
say, that the liberty of manifesting thought ought not to be hindered or 
restrained ? You have, then, made a great step, you have placed the question 
on a different footing. Or if you do not mean to say that every man, at all 
times, in all places, and on all subjects, has a right to give utterance to all that 
comes into his head, and that in any way he may think proper, you must then 
specify the things, the persons, the places, the times, the subjects, the condi- 
tions ; in short, you must note a variety of circumstances, you must prohibit 
altogether in some cases, limit in others, bind in some, loosen in others; in 
fine, make so many restrictions, that you will make little progress in establish- 
ing your general principle of freedom of thought, which at first appeared so 
simple and so clear. Even in the sanctuary of thought, where human sight 
does not extend, and which is open to the eye of God alone, what means the 
liberty of thought ? Is it owing to chance that laws are imposed on thought to 
which it is obliged to submit under pain of losing itself in chaos? Can it 
despise the rules of sound reason ? Can it refuse to listen to the counsels of 
good sense ? Can it forget that its object is truth ? Can it disregard the 
eternal principles of morality? Thus we find, in examining the meaning of 
the word liberty, even as applied to what is certainly freer than any thing else 
in man, viz. thought — we find such a number and variety of meanings that we 
are forced to make many distinctions, and necessity compels us to limit the 
general proposition, if we wish to avoid saying any thing in opposition to the 
dictates of reason and good sense, the eternal laws of morality, the interests 
of individuals, and the peace and preservation of society. And what may not 
be said of so many claims of liberty which are constantly propounded in lan- 
guage intentionally vague and equivocal ? 

I avail myself of these examples to prevent a confusion of ideas; for in 
defending the cause of Catholicity, I have no need of pleading for oppression, 
or of applauding tyranny, or of approving the conduct of those who have trod- 
den under foot men's most sacred rights. Yes, I say, sacred; for after the 
august religion of J esus Christ has been preached, man is sacred in the eyes of 
other men on account of his origin and divine destiny, on account of the image 
of Gi-od which is reflected in him, and because he has been redeemed with inef- 
fable goodness and love by the Son of the Eternal. This divine religion 
declares the rights of man to be sacred ; for its august Founder threatens with 
eternal punishment not only those who kill a man, those who mutilate or rob 
him, but even those who offend him in words : " He who shall say to his 
brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire." (Matt. v. 22.) Thus 
speaks our divine Lord. 

Our hearts swell with generous indignation, when we hear the religion of 
Jesus Christ reproached with a tendency towards oppression. It is true that, 
if you confound the spirit of real liberty with that of demagogues, you will not 
find it in Catholicity ; but, if you avoid a monstrous misnomer, if you give to 
the word liberty its reasonable, just, useful, and beneficial signification, then the 
Catholic religion may fearlessly claim the gratitude of the human race, for she 
has civilized the nations who embraced her, and civilization is true liberty. 

It is a fact now generally acknowledged, and openly confessed, that Chris- 
tianity has exercised a very important and salutary influence on the develop- 
ment of European civilization ; if this fact has not yet had given to it the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



81 



importance which it deserves, it is because it has not been sufficiently appreciated. 
With respect to civilization, a distinction is sometimes made between the 
influence of Christianity and that of Catholicity ; its merits are lavished on the 
former, and stinted to the latter, by those who forget that, with respect to 
European civilization, Catholicity can always claim the principal share; and, 
for many centuries, an exclusive one; since, during a very long period, she 
worked alone at the great work. People have not been willing to see that, 
when Protestantism appeared in Europe, the work was bordering on completion; 
with an injustice and ingratitude which I cannot describe, they have reproached 
Catholicity with the spirit of barbarism, ignorance, and oppression, while they 
were making an ostentatious display of the rich civilization, knowledge, and 
liberty, for which they were principally indebted to her. 

If they did not wish to fathom the intimate connection between Catholicity 
and European civilization, if they had not the patience necessary for the long 
investigations into which this examination would lead them, at least it would 
have been proper to take a glance at the condition of countries where the 
Catholic religion has not exerted all her influence during centuries of trouble, 
and compare them with those in which she has been predominant. The East 
and the West, both subject to great revolutions, both professing Christianity, 
but in such a way that the Catholic principle was weak and vacillating in the 
East, while it was energetic and deeply rooted in the West; these, we say, 
would have afforded two very good points of comparison to estimate the value 
of Christianity without Catholicity, when the civilization and the existence of 
nations were at stake. In the West, the revolutions were multiplied and fear- 
ful ; the chaos was at its height ; and, nevertheless, out of chaos came light and 
life. Neither the barbarism of the nations who inundated those countries, and 
established themselves there, nor the furious assaults of Islamism, even in the 
days of its greatest power and enthusiasm, could succeed in destroying the 
germs of a rich and fertile civilization. In the East, on the contrary, all tended 
to old age and decay; nothing revived; and, under the blows of the power 
which was ineffectual against us, all was shaken to pieces. The spiritual power 
of Rome, and its influence on temporal affairs, have certainly borne fruits very 
different from those produced, under the same circumstances, by its violent 
opponents. 

If Europe were destined one day again to undergo a general and fearful revo- 
lution, either by a universal spread of revolutionary ideas or by a violent inva- 
sion of social and proprietary rights by pauperism ; if the colossus of the North, 
seated on its throne amid eternal snows, with knowledge in its head, and blind 
force in its hands, possessing at once the means of civilization, and unceasingly 
turning towards the East, the South, and the West that covetous and crafty look 
which in history is the characteristic march of all invading empires ; if, availing 
itself of a favorable moment, it were to make an attempt on the independence 
of Europe, then we should perhaps have a proof of the value of the Catholic 
principle in a great extremity; then we should feel the power of the unity 
which is proclaimed and supported by Catholicity, and while calling to mind the 
middle ages, we should come to acknowledge one of the causes of the weakness 
of the East and the strength of the West. Then would be remembered a fact, 
which, though but of yesterday, is falling into oblivion, viz. that the nation 
whose heroic courage broke the power of Napoleon was proverbially Catholic; 
and who knows whether, in the attempts made in Russia against Catholicity, 
attempts which the Vicar of Jesus Christ has deplored in such touching lan- 
guage — who knows whether there be not the secret influence of a presentiment, 
perhaps even a foresight of the necessity of weakening that sublime power, 
which has been in all ages, when the cause of humanity was in question, the 
centre of great attempts ? But let us return. 
11 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



It cannot be denied that, since the sixteenth century, European civilization 
has shown life and brilliancy ) but it is a mistake to attribute this phenomenon 
to Protestantism. In order to examine the extent and influence of a fact, we 
ought not to be content with the events which have followed it ; it is also neces- 
sary to consider whether these events were already prepared ; whether they are 
any thing more than the necessary result of anterior facts ; and we must take 
care not to reason in a way which is justly declared to be sophistical by logi- 
cians, post hoc, ergo propter hoc : after that, therefore on account of it. Without 
Protestantism, and before it, European civilization was already very much ad- 
vanced, thanks to the labors and influence of the Catholic religion ; the great- 
ness and splendor which it subsequently displayed were not owing to it, but 
arose in spite of it. 

Erroneous ideas on this matter have arisen from the fact, that Christianity 
has not been deeply studied ; and that, without entering into a serious examina- 
tion of Church history, men have too often contented themselves with taking a 
superficial view of the principles of brotherhood which she has so much recom- 
mended. In order fully to understand an institution, it is not enough to remain 
satisfied with its leading ideas ; it is necessary to follow all its steps, see how it 
realizes its ideas, and how it triumphs over the obstacles that oppose it. We 
shall never form a complete idea of an historical fact, unless we carefully study 
its history. Now the study of Church history in its relations with civilization, 
is still incomplete. It is not that ecclesiastical history has not been profoundly 
studied • but it may be said that since the spirit of social analysis has been 
developed, that history has not yet been made the subject of those admirable 
labors which have thrown so much light upon it in a critical and dogmatical 
point of view. 

Another impediment to the complete comprehension of this matter is, that an 
exaggerated importance is given to the intentions of men, and the great march 
of events is too much neglected. The greatness of events is measured, and their 
nature judged of, by the immediate means which produces them, and the objects 
of the men whose actions are treated of ; this is a very important error. The 
eye ought to range over a wider field ; we ought to observe the successive de- 
velopment of ideas, the influence which they have exercised on events, the insti- 
tutions which have sprung from them ) but it is necessary to see all these things 
as they are in themselves, that is, on a large scale, without stopping to consider 
particular and isolated facts. It is an important truth, which ought to be deeply 
engraven on the mind, that when one of those great facts which change the lot 
of a considerable portion of the human race is developed, it is rarely understood 
by those who take part in it, and figure as the principal actors. The march of 
humanity is a grand drama ; the parts are played by persons who pass by and 
disappear : man is very little ) God alone is great. Neither the actors who 
figured on the scene in the ancient empires of the East, nor Alexander invading 
Asia and reducing numberless nations into servitude, nor the Romans subju- 
gating the world, nor the barbarians overturning the empire and breaking it in 
pieces, nor the Mussulmen ruling Asia and Africa and menacing the independ- 
ence of Europe, knew, or could know, that they were the instruments in the 
great designs whereof we admire the execution. 

I mean to show from this, that when we have to do with Christian civiliza- 
tion, when we collect and analyze the facts which distinguish its march, it is 
not necessary, or even often proper, to suppose that the men who have contri- 
buted to it in the most remarkable manner understood, to the full extent, the 
results of their own efforts. It is glory enough for a man to be pointed out as 
the chosen instrument of Providence, without the necessity of attributing to him 
great ability or lofty ambition. It is enough to observe that a ray of light has 
descended from heaven and illumined his brow; it is of little importance 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



83 



whether he foresaw that this ray, by reflection, was destined to shed a brilliant 
light on future generations. Little men are commonly smaller than they think 
themselves, but great men are often greater than they imagine ; if they do not 
know all their grandeur, it is because they are ignorant that they are the instru- 
ments of the high designs of Providence. Another observation which we ought 
always to have present in the study of these great events is, that we should not 
expect to find there a system, the connection and harmony of which are apparent 
at the first coup d'oeil. We must expect to see some irregularities and objects 
of an unpleasant aspect ; it is necessary to guard against the childish impatience 
of anticipating the time j it is indispensable to abandon that desire which we 
always have, in a greater or less degree, and which always urges us to seek 
every thing in conformity with our own ideas, and to see every thing advance 
in the way most pleasing to us. 

Do you not see nature herself so varied, so rich, so grand, lavish her trea- 
sures in disorder, hide her inestimable precious stones and her most valuable 
veins of metal in masses of earth ? See how she presents huge chains of moun- 
tains, inaccessible rocks, and fearful precipices, in contrast with her wide and 
smiling plains. Do you not observe this apparent disorder, this prodigality, in 
the midst of which numberless agents work, in secret concert, to produce the 
admirable whole which enchants our eyes and ravishes the lover of nature ? So 
with society j the facts are dispersed, scattered here and there, frequently offer- 
ing no appearance of order or concert ; events succeed each other, act on each 
other, without the design being discovered; men unite, separate, co-operate, 
and contend, and nevertheless time, that indispensable agent in the production 
of great works, goes on, and all is accomplished according to the destinies marked 
out in the secrets of the Eternal. 

This is the march of humanity ; this is the rule for the philosophic study of 
history ; this is the way to comprehend the influence of those productive ideas, 
of those powerful institutions, which from time to time appear among men to 
change the face of the earth. When in a study of this kind we discover acting 
at the bottom of things a productive idea, a powerful institution, the mind, far 
from being frightened at meeting with some irregularities, is inspired, on the 
contrary, with fresh courage ; for it is a sure sign that the idea is full of truth, 
that the institution is fraught with life, when we see them pass through the 
chaos of ages, and come safe out of the frightful ordeals. Of what importance 
is it that certain men were not influenced by the idea, that they did not answer 
the object of the institution, if the latter has survived its revolutions, and the 
former has not been swallowed up in the stormy sea of the passions ? To men- 
tion the weaknesses, the miseries, the faults, the crimes of men, is to make the 
most eloquent apology for the idea and the institution. 

In viewing men in this way, we do not take them out of their proper places, 
and we do not require from them more than is reasonable. We see them 
enclosed in the deep bed of the great torrent of events, and we do not attribute 
to their intellects, or to their will, any thing that exceeds the sphere appointed 
for them ; we do not, however, fail to appreciate in a proper manner the nature 
and the greatness of the works in which they take part, but we avoid giving to 
them an exaggerated importance, by honoring them with eulogiums which they 
do not deserve, or reproaching them unjustly. Times and circumstances are not 
monstrously confounded ; the observer sees with calmness and sang froid the 
events which pass before his eyes ; he speaks not of the empire of Charlemagne 
as he would of that of Napoleon, and is not hurried into bitter invectives against 
Gregory VII. because he did not adopt the same line of political conduct as 
Gregory XVI. 

Observe that I do not ask from the philosophical historian an impassive indif- 
ference to good and evil, to justice and injustice ; I do not claim indulgence for 



34 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



vice, nor would I refuse to virtue its eulogy. I have no sympathy with that 
school of historic fatalism, which would bring back to the world the destiny of 
the ancients; a school which, if it acquired influence, would corrupt the best 
part of history, and stifle the most generous emotions. I see in the march of 
society a plan, a harmony, but not a blind necessity; I do not believe that 
events are mingled up together indiscriminately in the dark urn of destiny, nor 
that fatalism holds the world enclosed in an iron circle. But I see a wonderful 
chain stretching over the course of centuries, a chain which does not fetter the 
movements of individuals or of nations, and which accommodates itself to the 
ebb and flow which are required by the nature of things ; at its touch great 
thoughts arise in the minds of men : this golden chain is suspended by the hand 
of the Eternal, it is the work of infinite intelligence and ineffable love. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DID THERE EXIST AT THE EPOCH WHEN CHRISTIANITY APPEARED ANY 
OTHER PRINCIPLE OF REGENERATION ? 

In what condition did Christianity find the world ? This is a question which 
ought to fix all our attention, if we wish to appreciate correctly the blessings 
conferred by that divine religion on individuals and on society, if we are desirous 
of knowing the real character of Christian civilization. Certainly at the time 
when Christianity appeared, society presented a dark picture. Covered with 
fine appearances, but infected to the heart with a mortal malady, it presented an 
image of the most repugnant corruption, veiled by a brilliant garb of ostenta- 
tion and opulence. Morality was without reality, manners without modesty, 
the passions without restraint, laws without authority, and religion without G-od. 
Ideas were at the mercy of prejudices, of religious fanaticism, and philosophical 
subtilties. Man was a profound mystery to himself ; he did not know how to 
estimate his own dignity, for he reduced it to the level of brutes ; and when he 
attempted to exaggerate its importance, he did not know how to confine it within 
the limits marked out by reason and nature : and it is well worthy of observa- 
tion, that while a great part of the human race groaned in the most abject 
servitude, heroes, and even the most abominable monsters, were elevated to the 
rank of gods. 

Such elements must, sooner or later, have produced social dissolution. Even 
if the violent irruption of the barbarians had not taken place, society must 
have been overturned sooner or later, for it did not possess a fertile idea, a 
consoling thought, or a beam of hope, to preserve it from ruin. 

Idolatry had lost its strength ; it was an expedient exhausted by time and 
by the gross abuse which the passions had made of it. Its fragile tissue once 
exposed to the dissolving influence of philosophical observation, idolatry was 
entirely disgraced ; and if the rooted force of habit still exercised a mechanical 
influence on the minds of men, that influence was neither capable of re-esta- 
blishing harmony in society, nor of producing that fiery enthusiasm which 
inspires great actions — enthusiasm which in virgin hearts may be excited by 
superstition the most irrational and absurd. To judge of them by the relaxa- 
tion of morals, by the enervated weakness of character, by the effeminate 
luxury, by the complete abandonment to the most repulsive amusements and 
the most shameful pleasures, it is clear that religious ideas no longer possessed 
the majesty of the heroic age ; no longer efficacious, they only exerted on men's 
minds a feeble influence, while they served in a lamentable manner as instru- 
ments of dissolution. Now it was impossible for it to be otherwise : nations 
who had obtained the high degree of cultivation of the Greeks and Romans ; 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



85 



nations who had heard their great sages dispute on the grand questions of 
divinity and man, could not continue in the state of simplicity which was 
necessary to believe with good faith the intolerable absurdities of which Pagan- 
ism is full ; and whatever may have been the disposition of mind among the 
ignorant portion of the people, assuredly those who were raised above the com- 
mon standard did not believe them — those who listened to philosophers as 
enlightened as Cicero, and who daily enjoyed the malicious railleries of their 
satirical poets. 

If religion was impotent, was there not another means, viz. knowledge? 
Before we examine what was to be hoped from this, it is necessary to observe, 
that knowledge never founded a society, nor was it ever able to restore one that 
had lost its balance. In looking over the history of ancient times, we find at 
the head of some nations eminent men who, thanks to the magic influence which 
they exercised over others, dictated laws, corrected abuses, rectified ideas, 
reformed morals, and established a government on wise principles ; thus securing, 
in a more or less satisfactory manner, the happiness and prosperity of those who 
were confided to their care. But we should be much mistaken if we imagined 
that these men proceeded according to what we call scientific combinations. 
Generally simple and rude, they acted according to the impulses of their gene- 
rous hearts, only guided by the wisdom and good sense of the father of a family 
in the management of his domestic affairs : never did these men adopt for their 
rule the wretched subtilties which we call theories, the crude mass of ideas 
which we disguise under the pompous name of science. Were the most dis- 
tinguished days of Greece those of Plato and Aristotle ? The proud Romans, 
who conquered the world, certainly had not the extent and variety of knowledge 
of the Augustan age ; and yet who would exchange the times or the men ? 

Modern times also can show important evidences of the sterility of science 
in creating social institutions ; which is the more evident as the practical effects 
of the natural sciences are the more visible. It seems that in the latter sciences 
man has a power which he has not in the former j although, when the matter 
is fully examined, the difference does not appear so great as at the first view. 

Let us briefly compare their respective results. 

When man seeks to apply the knowledge which he has acquired of the great 
laws of nature, he finds himself compelled to pay respect to her; as, whatever 
might be his wishes, his weak arm could not cause any great bouleversement, he 
is obliged to make his attempts limited in extent, and the desire of success 
induces him to act in conformity with the laws which govern the bodies he has 
to do with. It is quite otherwise with the application made of the social 
sciences. There man is able to act directly and immediately on society itself, 
on its eternal foundations ', he does not consider himself necessarily bound to 
make his attempts on a small scale, or to respect the eternal laws of society ; 
he is able, on the contrary, to imagine those laws as he pleases, indulge in as 
many subtilties as he thinks proper, and bring about disasters which humanity 
laments. Let us remember the extravagances which have found favor, with 
respect to nature, in the schools of philosophy, ancient and modern, and we 
shall see what would have become of the admirable machine of the universe, 
if philosophers had had full power over it. Descartes said, " Give me matter 
and motion, and I will form a world I" He could not derange an atom in the 
system of the universe. Bousseau, in his turn, dreamed of placing society on 
a new basis, and he upset the social state. It must not be forgotten that science, 
properly so called, has little power in the organization of society : this ought to 
be remembered in modern times, when it boasts so much of its pretended fer- 
tility. It attributes to its own labors what is the fruit of the lapse of ages, of 
the instinctive law of nations, and sometimes of the inspirations of genius; 
now neither this instinct of nations nor genius at all resembles science. 

H 



86' 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



But without pushing any further these general considerations, which are, 
nevertheless, very useful in leading us to a knowledge of man, what could be 
hoped from the false light of science which was preserved in the ruins of the 
ancient schools at the time we are speaking of? However limited the know- 
ledge of the ancient philosophers, even the most distinguished, may have been 
on these subjects, we must allow that the names of Socrates, Plato, and Aris- 
totle command some degree of respect, and that amid their errors and mistakes 
they give us thoughts which are really worthy of their lofty genius. But when 
Christianity appeared, the germs of knowledge planted by them had been de- 
stroyed j dreams had taken the place of high and fruitful thoughts, the love of 
disputation had replaced that of wisdom, sophistry and subtilties had been sub- 
stituted for mature judgment and severe reasoning. The ancient schools had 
been upset, others as sterile as they were strange had been formed out of their 
ruins ; on all sides there appeared a swarm of sophists like the impure insects 
which announce the corruption of a dead body. The Church has preserved for 
us a very valuable means of judging of the science of that time, in the history 
of the early heresies. Without speaking of what therein deserves all our in- 
dignation, as, for example, their profound immorality, can we find any thing 
more empty, absurd, or pitiable ? (14) 

The Roman legislation, so praiseworthy for its justice and equity, its wisdom 
and prudence, and much as it deserves to be regarded as one of the most pre- 
cious ornaments of ancient civilization, was yet incapable of preventing the 
dissolution with which society was threatened. Never did it owe its safety to 
jurisconsults; so great a work is beyond the sphere of action of jurisprudence. 
Let us suppose the laws as perfect as possible, jurisprudence carried to the 
highest point, jurisconsults animated by the purest feelings and guided by the 
most honest intentions, what would all this avail if the heart of society is cor- 
rupt, if moral principles have lost their force, if manners are in continual oppo- 
sition with laws ? Let us consider the picture of Roman manners such as their 
own historians have painted them ; we shall not find even a reflection of the 
equity, justice, and good sense which made the Roman laws deserve the glo- 
rious name of written reason. 

To give a proof of impartiality, I purposely omit the blemishes from which 
the Roman law was certainly not exempt, for I do not desire to be accused of 
wishing to lower every thing which is not the work of Christianity. Yet I 
must not pass over in silence the important fact, that it is by no means true 
that Christianity had no share in perfecting the jurisprudence of Rome j I do 
not mean merely during the period of the Christian emperors, which does not 
admit of a doubt, but even at a prior period. It is certain that some time be- 
fore the coming of J esus Christ the number of the Roman laws was very con- 
siderable, and that their study and arrangement already occupied the attention 
of many of the most illustrious men. We know from Suetonius (7/i Caesar. 
c. 44) that Julius Caesar had undertaken the extremely useful task of con- 
densing into a small number of books those which were the most select and 
necessary among the immense collection of laws j a similar idea occurred to 
Cicero, who wrote a book on the methodical digest of the civil law (de jure 
civili in arte redigendd), as Aulus Gellius attests. (Noct. Att. lib. i. c. 22.) 
According to Tacitus, this work also occupied the attention of the Emperor 
Augustus. Certainly these projects show that legislation was not in its infancy; 
but it is not the less true that the Roman law, as we possess it, is in great part 
the product of later ages. Many of the most famous jurists, whose opinions 
form a considerable part of the law, lived long after the coming of Jesus Christ. 
As to the constitutions of the emperors, their very names remind us of the 
time when they were digested. 

These facts being established, I shall observe that it does not follow that be- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



87 



cause the emperors and jurists were pagans, the Christian ideas had no influence 
on their works. The number of Christians was immense in all places ; the 
cruelty alone with which they had been persecuted, the heroic courage which 
they had displayed in the face of torments and death, must have drawn upon 
them the attention of the whole world; and it is impossible that this should 
not have excited, among men of reflection, curiosity enough to examine what 
this new religion taught its proselytes. The reading of the apologies for Chris- 
tianity already written in the first ages with so much force of reasoning and 
eloquence, the works of various kinds published by the early Fathers, the ho- 
milies of Bishops to their people, contain so much wisdom, breathe such a love 
for truth and justice, and proclaim so loudly the eternal principles of morality, 
that it was impossible for their influence not to be felt even by those who con- 
demned the religion of Christ. When doctrines having for their object the 
greatest questions which affect man are spread everywhere, propagated with fer- 
vent zeal, received with love by a considerable number of disciples, and main- 
tained by the talent and knowledge of illustrious men, these doctrines make a 
profound impression in all directions, and affect even those who warmly combat 
them. Their influence in this case is imperceptible, but it is not the less true 
and real. They act like the exhalations which impregnate the atmosphere; with 
the air we inhale sometimes death, and sometimes a salutary odor which purifies 
and strengthens us. 

Such must necessarily have been the case with a doctrine which was preached 
in so extraordinary a manner, propagated with so much rapidity, and the truth 
of which, sealed by torrents of blood, was defended by writers such as Justin, 
Clement of Alexandria, Irenseus, and Tertullian. The profound wisdom, the 
ravishing beauty of these doctrines, explained by the Christian doctors, must 
have called attention to the sources whence they flowed ; it was natural that 
curiosity thus excited should put the holy Scriptures into the hands of many 
philosophers and jurists. Would it be strange if Epictetus had imbibed some 
of the doctrines of the Sermon on the Mount, and if the oracles of jurispru- 
dence had imperceptibly received the inspiration of a religion whose power, 
spreading in a wonderful manner, took possession of all ranks of society? 
Burning zeal for truth and justice, the spirit of brotherhood, grand ideas of the 
dignity of man, the continued themes of Christian instruction, could not remain 
confined among the children of the Church. More or less rapidly they pene- 
trated all classes ; and when, by the conversion of Constantine, they acquired 
political influence and imperial authority, it was only the repetition of an ordi- 
nary phenomenon ; when a system has become very powerful in the social order, 
it ends by exerting an empire, or at least an influence, in the political. 

I leave these observations to the judgment of thinking men with perfect con- 
fidence j I am sure that if they do not adopt them, at least they will not consider 
them unworthy of reflection. We live at a time fruitful in great events, and 
when important revolutions have taken place ; therefore we are better able to 
understand the immense effects of indirect and slow influences, the powerful 
ascendency of ideas, and the irresistible force with which doctrines work their 
way. 

To this want of vital principles capable of regenerating society, to all those 
elements of dissolution which society contained within itself, was joined another 
evil of no slight importance, — the vice of its political organization. The world 
being under the yoke of Rome, hundreds of nations differing in manners and 
customs were heaped together in confusion, like spoils on the field of battle, and 
constrained to form a factitious body, like trophies placed upon a spear. The 
unity of the government being violent, could not be advantageous ; and more- 
over, as it was despotic, from the emperor down to the lowest pro-consul, it will 
be seen that it could not produce any other result than the debasement and 



88 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



degradation of nations, and that it was impossible for them to display that ele- 
vation and energy of character which are the precious fruit of a feeling of self- 
dignity and love for national independence. If Rome had preserved her ancient 
manners, if she had retained in her bosom warriors as celebrated for the sim- 
plicity and austerity of their lives as for the renown of their victories, some of 
the qualities of the conquerors might have been communicated to the conquered, 
as a young and robust heart reanimates with its vigor a body attenuated by dis- 
ease. Unfortunately such was not the case. The Fabiuses, the Camilluses, the 
Scipios, would not have acknowledged their unworthy posterity; Rome, the 
mistress of the world, like a slave, was trodden under the feet of monsters who 
mounted to the throne by perjury and violence, stained their sceptres with cor- 
ruption and cruelty, and fell by the hands of assassins. The authority of the 
Senate and people had disappeared ; only vain imitations of them were left, 
vestigia morientis libertatis, as Tacitus calls them, vestiges of expiring liberty; 
and this royal people, who formerly disposed of kingdoms, consulships, legions, 
and all, then thought only of two things, food and games, 

" Qui dabat olim 
Imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se 
Continet, atque duas tantum res anxius optat, 
Panem et Circenses." — Juvenal, Satire x. 

At length, in the plenitude of time Christianity appeared; and without an- 
nouncing any change in political forms, without intermeddling in the temporal 
and earthly, it brought to mankind a twofold salvation, by calling them to the 
path of eternal felicity, but at the same time bountifully supplying them with 
the only means of preservation from social dissolution, the germ of a regenera- 
tion slow and pacific, but grand, immense, and lasting, and secure from the 
revolutions of ages ; and this preservative against social dissolution, this germ 
of invaluable improvements, was a pure and lofty doctrine, diffused among all 
mankind, without exception of age, sex, and condition, as the rain which falls 
like a mild dew on an arid and thirsty soil. No religion has ever equalled 
Christianity in knowledge of the hidden means of influencing man ; none has 
ever, when doing so, paid so high a compliment to his dignity ; and Christianity 
has always adopted the principle, that the first step in gaining possession of the 
whole man is that of gaining his mind ; and that it is necessary, in order either 
to destroy evil or to effect good, to adopt intellectual means : thereby it has 
given a mortal blow to the systems of violence which prevailed before its exist- 
ence ; it has proclaimed the wholesome truth, that in influencing men, the 
weakest and most unworthy method is force ; a fruitful and beneficial truth, 
which opened to humanity a new and happy future. Only since the Christian 
era do we find the lessons of the sublimest philosophy taught to all classes of 
the people, at all times and in all places. The loftiest truths relating to G-od 
and man, the rules of the purest morality, are not communicated to a chosen 
number of disciples in hidden and mysterious instructions ; the philosophy of 
Christianity has been bolder ; it has ventured to reveal to man the whole naked 
truth, and that in public, with a loud voice, and that generous boldness which 
is the inseparable companion of the truth. "That which I tell you in the dark, 
speak ye in the light ; and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the 
housetop." (Matt. x. 27.) 

As soon as Christianity and Paganism met face to face, the superiority of the 
former was rendered palpable, not only by its doctrines themselves, but by the 
manner in which it propagated them. It might easily be imagined that a reli- 
gion so wise and pure in its teachings, and which, in propagating them, addressed 
itself directly to the mind and heart, must quickly drive from its usurped domi- 
nion the religion of imposture and falsehood. And, indeed, what did Paganism 
do for the good of man ? What moral truths did it teach ? How did it check 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



89 



the corruption of manners? "As to morals," says St. Augustine, "why have 
not the gods chosen to take care of those of their adorers, and prevent their 
irregularities ? As to the true G-od, it is with justice that He has neglected 
those who did not serve Him. But whence comes it that those gods, the pro- 
hibition of whose worship is complained of by ungrateful men, have not esta- 
blished laws to lead their adorers to virtue ? Was it not reasonable that, as 
men undertook their mysteries and sacrifices, the gods, on their side, should 
undertake to regulate the manners and actions of men ? It is replied, that no 
one is wicked but because he wishes to be so. Who doubts this ? but the gods 
ought not on that account to conceal from their worshippers precepts that might 
serve to make them practise virtue. They were, on the contrary, under the 
obligation of publishing those precepts aloud, of admonishing and rebuking 
sinners by their prophets j of publicly threatening punishment to those who 
did evil, and promising rewards to those who did well. Was there ever heard, 
in the temples of the gods, a loud and generous voice teaching any thing of the 
kind V* (Be Civ it. lib. ii. c. 4.) The holy doctor afterwards paints a dark pic- 
ture of the infamies and abominations which were committed in the spectacles 
and sacred games celebrated in honor of the gods — games and shows at which 
he had himself assisted in his youth ; he continues thus : " Thence it comes 
that these divinities have taken no care to regulate the morals of the cities and 
nations who adore them, or to avert by their threats those dreadful evils which 
injure not only fields and vineyards, houses and properties, or the body which 
is subject to the mind, but the mind itself, the directress of the body, which 
was drenched with their iniquities. Or if it be pretended that they did make 
such menaces, let them be shown and proved to us. But let there not be alleged 
a few secret words whispered in the ears of a small number of persons, and 
which, with a great deal of mystery, were to teach virtue. It is necessary to 
point out, to name the places consecrated to the assemblies — not those in which 
were celebrated games with lascivious words and gestures \ not those feasts called 
fuites, and which were solemnized with the most unbridled license ; but the 
assemblies where the people were instructed in the precepts of the gods for the 
repression of avarice, moderating ambition, restraining immodesty ; those where 
these unfortunate beings learn what Perseus desires them to know, when he 
says, in severe language, ' Learn, unhappy mortals, the reason of things, 
what we are, why we come into the world, what we ought to do, how miserable 
is the term of our career, what bounds we ought to prescribe to ourselves in the 
pursuit of riches, what use we ought to make of them, what we owe to our 
neighbor, in fine, the obligations we owe to the rank we occupy among men/ 
Let them tell us in what places they have been accustomed to instruct the 
people in these things by order of the gods ; let them show us these places, as 
we show them churches built for this purpose wherever the Christian religion 
has been established/' (Be Civit. lib. ii. c. 6.) This divine religion was too 
deeply acquainted with the heart of man ever to forget the weakness and incon- 
stancy which characterize it ; and hence it has ever been her invariable rule of 
conduct unceasingly to inculcate to him, with untiring patience, the salutary 
truths on which his temporal well-being and eternal happiness depend. Man 
easily forgets moral truths when he is not constantly reminded of them ; or if 
they remain in his mind, they are there like sterile seeds, and do not fertilize 
his heart. It is good and highly salutary for parents constantly to communi- 
cate this instruction to their children, and that it should be made the principal 
object of private education; but it is necessary, moreover, that there should be 
a public ministry, never losing sight of it, diffusing it among all classes and 
ages, repairing the negligences of families, and reviving recollections and im- 
pressions which the passions and time constantly efface. 

This system of constant preaching and instruction, practised at all times and 

12 H 2 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



in all places by the Catholic Church, is so important for the enlightenment and 
morality of nations, that it must be looked upon as a great good, that the first 
Protestants, in spite of their desire to destroy all the practices of the Church, 
have nevertheless preserved that of preaching. "We need not be insensible on 
this account to the evils produced at certain times by the declamation of some 
factious or fanatical ministers ; but as unity had been broken, as the people had 
been precipitated into the perilous paths of schism, we say that it must have 
been extremely useful for the preservation of the most important notions with 
respect to God and man and the fundamental maxims of morality, that such 
truths should be frequently explained to the people by men who had long studied 
them in the sacred Scriptures. No doubt the mortal blow given to the hierarchy 
by the Protestant system, and the degradation of the priesthood which was the 
consequence, have deprived its preachers of the sacred characteristics of the 
Holy Spirit ; no doubt it is a great obstacle to the efficacy of their preachers, 
that they cannot present themselves as the anointed of the Lord, and that they 
are only, as an able writer has said, men clothed in Hack, who mount the pulpit 
every Sunday to speak reasonable things; but at least the people continue to 
hear some fragments of the excellent moral discourses contained in the sacred 
Scriptures, they have often before their eyes the edifying examples spread over 
the Old and New Testament, and, what is still more precious, they are reminded 
frequently of the events in the life of Jesus Christ, — of that admirable life, the 
model of all perfection, which, even when considered in a human point of view, 
is acknowledged by all to be the purest sanctity par excellence, the noblest code 
of morality that was ever seen, the realization of the finest beau ideal that phi- 
losophy in its loftiest thoughts has ever conceived under human form, and which 
poetry has ever imagined in its most brilliant dreams. This we say is useful 
and highly salutary ; for it will always be salutary for nations to be nourished 
with the wholesome food of moral truths, and to be excited to virtue by such 
sublime examples. 



CHAPTER XV. 

DIFFICULTIES WHICH CHRISTIANITY HAD TO OVERCOME IN THE WORK OF 

SOCIAL REGENERATION. — OF SLAVERY. COULD IT BE DESTROYED WITH 

MORE PROMPTNESS THAN IT WAS BY CHRISTIANITY? 

Although the Church attached the greatest importance to the propagation 
of truth, although she was convinced that to destroy the shapeless mass of im- 
morality and degradation that met her sight, her first care should be to expose 
error to the dissolving fire of true doctrines, she did not confine herself to this; 
but, descending to real life, and following a system full of wisdom and pru- 
dence, she acted in such a manner as to enable humanity to taste the precious 
fruit which the doctrines of Jesus Christ produce even in temporal things. The 
Church was not only a great and fruitful school ; she was also a regenerative asso- 
ciation; she did not diffuse her general doctrines by throwing them abroad at 
hazard, merely hoping that they would fructify with time ; she developed them 
in all their relations, applied them to all subjects, inoculated laws and manners 
with them, and realized them in institutions which afforded silent but eloquent 
instructions to future generations. Nowhere was the dignity of man acknow- 
ledged, slavery reigned everywhere; degraded woman was dishonored by the 
corruption of manners, and debased by the tyranny of man. The feelings of 
humanity were trodden under foot, infants were abandoned, the sick and aged 
were neglected, barbarity and cruelty were carried to the highest pitch of atro- 
city in the prevailing laws of war ; in fine, on the summit of the social edifice 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



91 



was seen an odious tyranny, sustained by military force, and looking down with 
an eye of contempt on the unfortunate nations that lay in fetters at its feet. 

In such a state of things it certainly was no slight task to remove error, to 
reform and improve manners, abolish slavery, correct the vices of legislation, 
impose a check on power, and make it harmonize with the public interest, give 
new life to individuals, and reorganize family and society; and yet nothing less 
than this was done by the Church. Let us begin with slavery. This is a mat- 
ter which is the more to be fathomed, as it is a question eminently calculated 
to excite our curiosity and affect our hearts. What abolished slavery among 
Christian nations ? Was it Christianity ? Was it Christianity alone, by its 
lofty ideas on human dignity, by its maxims and its spirit of fraternity and 
charity, and also by its prudent, gentle, and beneficent conduct ? I trust I shall 
prove that it was. No one now ventures to doubt that the Church exercised a 
powerful influence on the abolition of slavery; this is a truth too clear and evi- 
dent to be questioned. M. Guizot acknowledges the successful efforts with 
which the Church labored to improve the social condition. He says : " No one 
doubts that she struggled obstinately against the great vices of the social state ; 
for example, against slavery." But, in the next line, and as if he were reluct- 
ant to establish without any restriction a fact which must necessarily excite in 
favor of the Catholic Church the sympathies of all humanity, he adds : " It 
has been often repeated that the abolition of slavery in the modern world was 
entirely due to Christianity. I believe that this is saying too much ; slavery 
' existed for a long time in the bosom of Christian society without exciting aston- 
ishment or much opposition/' M. Guizot is much mistaken if he expects to 
prove that the abolition of slavery was not due exclusively to Christianity, by 
the mere representation that slavery existed for a long time amid Christian , 
» society. To proceed logically, he must first see whether the sudden abolition \ 
of it was possible, if the spirit of peace and order which animates the Church 
could allow her rashly to enter on an enterprise which, without gaining the de- 
sired object, might have convulsed the world. The number of slaves was im- 
mense ; slavery was deeply rooted in laws, manners, ideas, and interests, indi- 
vidual and social ; a fatal system, no doubt, but the eradication of which all at 
once it would have been rash to attempt, as its roots had penetrated deeply and 
spread widely in the bowels of the land. 

In a census of Athens there were reckoned 20,000 citizens and 40,000 slaves ; 
in the Peloponnesian war no less than 20,000 passed over to the enemy. This 
we learn from Thucydides. The same author tells us, that at Chio the number 
of slaves was very considerable, and that their defection, when they passed over 
to the Athenians, reduced their masters to great extremities. In general, the 
number of slaves was so very great everywhere that the public safety was often 
compromised thereby. Therefore it was necessary to take precautions to prevent 
their acting in concert. "It is necessary," says Plato (Dial. 6, de Leg?), 
" that slaves should not be of the same country, and that they should differ as 
much as possible in manners and desires ; for experience has many times shown, 
in the frequent defections which have been witnessed, among the Messenians, 
and in other cities that had a great number of slaves of the same language, that 
great evils commonly result from it." Aristotle in his Government (b. i. c. 5) 
gives various rules as to the manner in which slaves ought to be treated ; it is 
remarkable that he is of the same opinion as Plato, for he says : " That there 
should not be many slaves of the same country." He tells us in his Politics 
(b. ii. c. 7), " That the Thessalians were reduced to great embarrassments on 
account of the number of their Penestes, a sort of slaves ; the same thing hap- 
pened to the Spartans on account of the Helotes. The Penestes have often 
rebelled in Thessaly; and the Spartans, during their reverses, have been me- 
naced by the plots of the Helotes." This was a difficulty which required the 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



serious attention of politicians. They did not know how to prevent the incon- 
veniences induced by this immense multitude of slaves. Aristotle laments the 
difficulty there was in finding the best way of treating them j and we see that 
it was the subject of grave cares; I will transcribe his own words : "In truth," 
he says, " the manner in which this class of men ought to be treated is a thing 
difficult and full of embarrassment ; for if they are treated mildly, they become 
insolent, and wish to become equal to their masters ; if they are treated harshly, 
they conceive hatred, and conspire." 

At Rome, the multitude of slaves was such that when, at a certain period, it 
was proposed to give them a distinctive dress, the Senate opposed the measure, 
fearing that if they knew their own numbers the public safety would be endan- 
gered ; and certainly this precaution was not vain, for already, a long time be- 
fore, the slaves had caused great commotions in Italy. Plato, in support of the ad- 
vice which I have just quoted, states, " That the slaves had frequently devastated 
Italy with piracy and robbery/' In more recent times Spartacus, at the head 
of an army of slaves, was the terror of that country for some time, and engaged 
the best generals of Rome. The number of slaves had reached such an excess, 
that many masters reckoned them by hundreds. When the Prefect of Rome, 
Pedanius Secundus, was assassinated, four hundred slaves who belonged to him 
were put to death. (Tac. Ann. b. xiv.) Pudentila, the wife of Apulcius, had 
so many that she gave four hundred to her son. They became a matter of 
pomp, and the Romans vied with each other in their number. When asked 
this question, quod pascit servos, how many slaves does he keep, according to 
the expression of Juvenal (Sat. 3, v. 140), they wished to be able to show a 
great number. The thing had reached such a pass that, according to Pliny, the 
cortege of a family resembled an army. 

It was not only in Greece and Italy that this abundance of slaves was found ; 
at Tyre they arose against their masters, and, by their immense numbers, they 
were able to massacre them all. If we turn our eyes towards barbarous nations, 
without speaking of some the best known, we learn from Herodotus that the 
Scythians, on their return from Media, found their slaves in rebellion, and were 
compelled to abandon their country to them. Caesar in his Commentaries (de 
Bello Gall. lib. vi.) bears witness to the multitude of slaves in Gaul. As their 
number was everywhere so considerable, it is clear that it was quite impossible 
to preach freedom to them without setting the world on fire. Unhappily we 
have, in modern times, the means of forming a comparison which, although on 
an infinitely smaller scale, will answer our purpose. In a colony where black 
slaves abound, who would venture to set them at liberty all at once ? Now how 
much are the difficulties increased, what colossal dimensions does not the dan- 
ger assume, when you have to do, not with a colony, but with the world ? Their 
intellectual and moral condition rendered them incapable of turning such an 
advantage to their own benefit and that of society ; in their debasement, urged 
on by the hatred and the desire of vengeance which ill-treatment had excited in 
their minds, they would have repeated, on a large scale, the bloody scenes 
with which they had already, in former times, stained the pages of history ; and 
what would then have happened ? Society, thus endangered, would have been 
put on its guard against principles favoring liberty ; henceforth it would have 
regarded them with prejudice and suspicion, and the chains of servitude, instead 
of being loosened, would have been the more firmly riveted. Out of this im- 
mense mass of rude, savage men, set at liberty without preparation, it was 
impossible for social organization to arise; for social organization is not the 
creation of a moment, especially with such elements as these ; and in this case, 
since it would have been necessary to choose between slavery and the annihila- 
tion of social order, the instinct of preservation, which animates society as well 
as all beings, would undoubtedly have brought about the continuation of slavery 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



93 



where it still existed, and its re-establishment where it had been destroyed. 
Those who complain that Christianity did not accomplish the work of abolishing 
slavery with sufficient promptitude, should remember that, even supposing a 
sudden or very rapid emancipation possible, and to say nothing of the bloody 
revolutions which would necessarily have been the result, the mere force of 
circumstances, by the insurmountable difficulties which it would have raised, 
would have rendered such a measure absolutely useless. Let us lay aside all 
social and political considerations, and apply ourselves to the economical question. 
First, it was necessary to change ail the relations of property. The slaves 
played a principal part therein ; they cultivated the land, and worked as me- 
chanics ; in a word, among them was distributed all that is called labor ; and 
this distribution being made on the supposition of slavery, to take away this 
would have made a disruption, the ultimate consequences of which could not 
be estimated. I will suppose that violent spoliations had taken place, that a 
repartition or equalization of property had been attempted, that lands had been 
distributed to the emancipated, and that the richest proprietors had been com- 
pelled to hold the pickaxe and the plough ; I will suppose all these absurdities 
and mad dreams to be realized, and I say that this would have been no remedy ; 
for we must not forget that the production of the means of subsistence must be 
in proportion to the wants of those they are intended to support, and that this 
proportion would have been destroyed by the abolition of slavery. The pro- 
duction was regulated, not exactly according to the number of the individuals 
who then existed, but on the supposition that the majority were slaves; now we 
know that the wants of a freeman are greater than those of a slave. 

If at the present time, after eighteen centuries, when ideas have been cor- 
rected, manners softened, laws ameliorated; when nations and governments 
have been taught by experience ; when so many public establishments for the 
relief of indigence have been founded ; when so many systems have been tried 
for the division of labor; when riches are distributed in a more equitable man- 
ner ; if it is still so difficult to prevent a great number of men from becoming 
the victims of dreadful misery, if that is the terrible evil, which, like a fatal 
nightmare, torments society, and threatens its future, what would have been the 
effect of a universal emancipation, at the beginning of Christianity, at a time 
when slaves were not considered by the law as persons, but as things ; when 
their conjugal union was not looked upon as a marriage ; when their children 
were property, and subject to the same rules as the progeny of animals; when, 
in fine, the unhappy slave was ill-treated, tormented, sold, or put to death, 
according to the caprices of his master ? Is it not evident that the cure of such 
evils was the work of ages ? Do not humanity and political and social economy 
unanimously tell us this ? If mad attempts had been made, the slaves them- 
selves would have been the first to protest against them ; they would have 
adhered to a servitude which at least secured to them food and shelter ; they 
would have rejected a liberty which was inconsistent even with their existence. 
Such is the order of nature : man, above all, requires wherewith to live ; and 
the means of subsistence being wanting, liberty itself would cease to please 
him. It is not necessary to allude to the individual examples of this, which 
we have in abundance ; entire nations have given signal proofs of this truth. 
When misery is excessive, it is difficult for it not to bring with it degradation, 
stifle the most generous sentiments, and take away the magic of the words inde- 
pendence and liberty. "The common people," says Caesar, speaking of the 
Gauls (lib. vi. de Bello Gall.), " are almost on a level with slaves ; of themselves 
they venture nothing; their voice is of no avail. There are many of that 
class, who, loaded with debts and tributes, or oppressed by the powerful, give 
themselves up into servitude to the nobles, who exercise over those who have 
thus delivered themselves up the same rights as over slaves." Examples of the 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



same kind are not wanting in modern times; we know that in China there is a 
great number of slaves whose servitude is owing entirely to the incapacity of 
themselves or their fathers to provide for their own subsistence. 

These observations, which are supported by facts that no one can deny, evi- 
dently show that Christianity has displayed profound wisdom in proceeding with 
so much caution in the abolition of slavery. 

It did all that was possible in favor of human liberty ; if it did not advance 
more rapidly in the work, it was because it could not do so without compromit- 
ting the undertaking — without creating serious obstacles to the desired emanci- 
pation. Such is the result at which we arrive when we have thoroughly 
examined the charges made against some proceedings of the Church. We look 
into them by the light of reason, we compare them with the facts, and in the 
end we are convinced that the conduct blamed is perfectly in accordance with 
the dictates of the highest wisdom and the counsels of the soundest prudence. 
What, then, does M. G-uizot mean, when, after having allowed that Christianity 
labored with earnestness for the abolition of slavery, he accuses it of having 
consented for a long time to its continuance ? Is it logical thence to infer that 
it is not true that this immense benefit is due exclusively to Christianity ? That 
slavery endured for a long time in presence of the Church is true ; but it was 
always declining, and it only lasted as long as was necessary to realize the 
benefit without violence — without a shock — without compromising its univer- 
sality and its continuation. Moreover, we ought to subtract from the time of 
its continuance many ages, during which the Church was often proscribed, 
always regarded with aversion, and totally unable to exert a direct influence on 
the social organization. We ought also, to a great extent, to make exception of 
later times, as the Church had only begun to exert a direct and public influence, 
when the irruption of the northern barbarians took place, which, together with 
the corruption which infected the empire and spread in a frightful manner, pro- 
duced such a perturbation, such a confused mass of languages, customs, man- 
ners, and laws, that it was almost impossible to make the regulating power 
produce salutary fruits. If, in later times, it has been difficult to destroy 
feudality ; if there remain to this day, after ages of struggles, the remnants of 
that constitution; if the slave-trade, although limited to certain countries and 
circumstances, still merits the universal reprobation which is raised throughout 
the world against its infamy • how can we venture to express our astonishment 
— how can we venture to make it a reproach against the Church, that slavery 
continued some ages after she had proclaimed men's fraternity with each other, 
and their equality before God ? 



CHAPTER XVI. 

IDEAS AND MANNERS OF ANTIQUITY WITH RESPECT TO SLAVERY. — THE 
CHURCH BEGINS BY IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF SLAVES. 

Happily the Catholic Church was wiser than philosophers j she knew how 
to confer on humanity the benefit of emancipation, without injustice or revolu- 
tion. She knew how to regenerate society, but not in rivers of blood. Let us 
see what was her conduct with respect to the abolition of slavery. Much has 
been already said of the spirit of love and fraternity which animates Chris- 
tianity, and that is sufficient to show that its influence in this work must have 
been great. But perhaps sufficient care has not been taken in seeking the posi- 
tive and practical means which the Church employed for this end. In the dark- 
ness of ages, in circumstances so complicated or various, will it be possible to 
discover any traces of the path pursued by the Catholic Church in accomplish- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



95 



ing the destruction of that slavery under which a large portion of the human 
race groaned ? Will it be possible to do any thing more than praise her Chris- 
tian charity? Will it be possible to point out a plan, a system, and to prove 
the existence and development of it, not by referring to a few expressions, to 
elevated thoughts, generous sentiments, and the isolated actions of a few illus- 
trious men, but by exhibiting positive facts, and historical documents, which 
show what were the esprit de corps and tendency of the Church ? I believe 
that this may be done, and I have no doubt that I shall be able to do it, by 
availing myself of what is most convincing and decisive in the matter, viz. the 
monuments of ecclesiastical legislation. 

In the first place, it will not be amiss to remember what I have already pointed 
out, viz. that when we have to do with the conduct, designs, and tendencies of 
the Church, it is by no means necessary to suppose that these designs were con- 
ceived in their fullest extent by the mind of any individual in particular, nor 
that the merit and all the prudence of that conduct was understood by those 
who took part in it. It is not even necessary to suppose that the first Christians 
understood all the force of the tendencies of Christianity with respect to the 
abolition of slavery. What requires to be shown is, that the result has been 
obtained by the doctrines and conduct of the Church, as with Catholics, (al- 
though they know how to esteem at their just value the merit and greatness of 
each man,) individuals, when the Church is concerned, disappear. Their 
thoughts and will are nothing ; the spirit which animates, vivifies, and directs 
the Church, is not the spirit of man, but that of God himself. Those who 
belong not to our faith will employ other names ; but at least we shall agree in 
this, that facts, considered in this way, above the mind and the will of indivi- 
duals, preserve much better their real dimensions ; and thus the great chain of 
events in the study of history remains unbroken. Let it be said that the con- 
duct of the Church was inspired and directed by God ; or that it was the result 
of instinct ; that it was the development of a tendency contained in her doc- 
trines ; we will not now stay to consider the expressions which may be used by 
Catholics, or by philosophers j what we have to show is, that this instinct was 
noble and well-directed ) that this tendency had a great object in view, and 
knew how to attain it. 

The first thing that Christianity did for slaves, was to destroy the errors 
which opposed, not only their universal emancipation, but even the improve- 
ment of their condition ; that is, the first force which she employed in the attack 
was, according to her custom, the force of ideas. This first step was the more 
necessary, as the same thing applies to all other evils, as well as to slavery; 
every social evil is always accompanied by some error which produces or foments 
it. There existed not only the oppression and degradation of a large portion 
of the human race, but, moreover, an accredited error, which tended more and 
more to lower that portion of humanity. According to this opinion, slaves 
were a mean race, far below the dignity of freemen : they were a race degraded 
by Jupiter himself, marked by a stamp of humiliation, and predestined to their 
state of abjection and debasement. A detestable doctrine, no doubt, and con- 
tradicted by the nature of man, by history and experience ; but which, never- 
theless, reckoned distinguished men among its defenders, and which we see pro- 
claimed for ages, to the shame of humanity and the scandal of reason, until 
Christianity came to destroy it, by undertaking to vindicate the rights of man. 
Homer tells us (Odys. 17) that " Jupiter has deprived slaves of half the mind." 
We find in Plato a trace of the same doctrine, although he expresses himself, as 
he is accustomed to do, by the mouth of another; he ventures to advance the 
following : " It is said that, in the mind of slaves, there is nothing sound or 
complete j and that a prudent man ought not to trust that class of persons ; 
which is equally attested by the wisest of our poets." Here Plato cites the 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



above-quoted passage of Homer (Dial. 8, de Legihus). But it is in the Politics 
of Aristotle that we find this degrading doctrine in all its deformity and naked- 
ness. Some have wished to excuse this philosopher, but in vain ; his own words 
condemn him without appeal. In the first chapter of his work, he explains the 
constitution of the family, and attempts to state the relations of husband and 
wife, of master and slave ; he states that, as the wife is by nature different from 
the husband, so is the slave from the master. These are his words : " Thus the 
woman and the slave are distinguished by nature itself." Let it not be said 
that this is an expression that escaped from the pen of the writer; it was stated 
with a full knowledge, and is a resume of his theory. In the third chapter, 
where he continues to analyze the elements which compose the family, after 
having stated "that a complete family is formed of free persons and slaves/' 
he alludes particularly to the latter, and begins by combating an opinion which 
he thinks too favorable to them : " There are some," he says, "who think that 
slavery is a thing out of the order of nature, since it is the law itself which 
makes some free and others slaves, while nature makes no distinction." Before 
combating this opinion, he explains the relations between master and slave, by 
using the comparison of artist and instrument, and that of the soul and body; 
he continues thus : "If we compare man to woman, we find that the first is su- 
perior, therefore he commands ; the woman is inferior, therefore she obeys. 
The same thing ought to take place among all men. Thus it is that those among 
them who are as inferior with respect to others, as the body is with respect to the 
soul, and the animal to man ; those whose powers principally consist in the use of 
the body, the only service that can be obtained from them, they are naturally 
slaves." We should imagine, at first sight, that the philosopher spoke only of 
idiots ; his words would seem to indicate this ; but wc shall see, by the context, 
that such is not his intention. It is evident that if he spoke only of idiots, he 
would prove nothing against the opinion which he desires to combat ; for the 
number of them is nothing with respect to the generality of men. If he spoke 
only of idiots, of what use would be a theory founded on so rare and monstrous 
an exception ? 

But we have no need of conjectures as to the real intention of the philoso- 
pher, he himself takes care to explain it to us, and tells us at the same time for 
what reason he ventures to make use of expressions which seem, at first, to place 
the matter on another level. His intention is nothing less than to attribute to 
nature the express design of producing men of two kinds j one born for slavery, 
the other for liberty. The passage is too important and too curious to be 
omitted. It is this : " Nature has taken care to create the bodies of free men 
different from those of slaves ; the bodies of the latter are strong, and proper 
for the most necessary labors : those of freemen, on the contrary, well formed, 
although ill adapted for servile works, are proper for civil life, which consists 
in the management of things in war and peace. Nevertheless, the contrary 
often happens. To a free man is given the body of a slave ; and to a slave the 
soul of a free man. There is no doubt that, if the bodies of some men were as 
much more perfect than others, as we see is the case in the image of the Gods, 
all the world would be of opinion that these men should be obeyed by those 
who had not the same beauty. If this is true in speaking of the body, it is 
still more so in speaking of the soul ; although it is not so easy to see the 
beauty of the soul as that of the body. Thus it cannot be doubted that there 
are some men born for liberty, as others are for slavery; a slavery which is not 
only useful to the slaves themselves, but, moreover, just." A miserable philo- 
sophy, which, in order to support that degraded state, was obliged to have 
recourse to such subtilties, and ventured to impute to nature the intention of cre- 
ating different castes, some born to command and others to obey; a cruel philo- 
sophy, which thus labored to break the bonds of fraternity with which the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



97 



Author of nature has desired to knit together the human race, pretending to 
raise a barrier between man and man, and inventing theories to support inequal- 
ity; not that inequality which is the necessary result of all social organization, 
but an inequality so terrible and degrading as that of slavery. 

Christianity raises its voice, and by the first words which it pronounces on 
slaves, declares them equal to all men in the dignity of nature, and in the par- 
ticipation of the graces which the Divine Spirit diffuses upon earth. We must 
remark the care with which St. Paul insists on this point j it seems as if he had 
in view those degrading distinctions which have arisen from a fatal forgetfulness 
of the dignity of man. The Apostle never forgets to inculcate to the faithful 
that there is no difference between the slave and the freeman. " For in one 
Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether J ews or G-entiles, whether 
bond or free." (1 Cor. xii. 13.) " For you are all children of Glod, by faith in 
Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put 
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond or free; 
there is neither male or female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gral. iii. 
26-28.) " Where there is neither Grentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircum- 
cision, barbarian or Scythian, bond or free ; but Christ is all and in all." (Colos. 
iii. 11.) The heart dilates at the sound of the voice thus loudly proclaiming 
the great principles of holy fraternity and equality. After having heard the 
oracles of Paganism inventing doctrines to degrade still more the unhappy 
slaves, we seem to awake from a painful dream, and to find ourselves in the 
light of day in the midst of the delightful reality. The imagination delights 
to contemplate the millions of men who, bent under degradation and ignominy, 
at this voice raised their eyes towards Heaven, and were animated with hope. 

It was with this teaching of Christianity as with all generous and fruitful 
doctrines ; they penetrate the heart of society, remain there as a precious germ, 
and, developed by time, produce an immense tree which overshadows families 
and nations. When these doctrines were diffused among men, they could not 
fail to be misunderstood and exaggerated. Thus there were found some who 
pretended that Christian freedom was the proclamation of universal freedom. 
The pleasing words of Christ easily resounded in the ears of slaves : they heard 
themselves declared children of God, and brethren of Jesus Christ; they saw 
that there was no distinction made between them and their masters, between 
them and the most powerful lords of the earth ; is it, then, strange that men 
only accustomed to chains, to labor, to every kind of trouble and degradation, 
exaggerated the principles of Christian liberty, and made applications of them 
which were neither just in themselves, nor capable of being reduced to practice ? 
We know, from St. Jerome, that many, hearing themselves called to Christian 
liberty, believed that they were thereby freed. Perhaps the Apostle alluded to 
this error when, in his first epistle to Timothy, he said, "Whosoever are ser- 
vants under the yoke, let them count their masters worthy of all honor; lest 
the name of the Lord and His doctrines be blasphemed." (1 Timothy vi. 1.) 
This error had been so general, that after three centuries it was still much cre- 
dited ; and the Council of G-angres, held about 324, was obliged to excommu- 
nicate those who, under pretence of piety, taught that slaves ought to quit their 
masters, and withdraw from their service. This was not the teaching of Chris- 
tianity ; besides, we have clearly shown that it would not have been the right 
way to achieve universal emancipation. Therefore this same Apostle, from 
whose mouth we have heard such generous language in favor of slaves, fre- 
quently inculcates to them obedience to their masters ; but let us observe, that 
while fulfilling this duty imposed by the spirit of peace and justice which ani- 
mates Christianity, he so explains the motives on which the obedience of slaves 
ought to be based, he calls to mind the obligations of masters in such affecting 
and energetic words, and establishes so expressly and conclusively the equality 



98 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



of all men before God, that we cannot help seeing how great was his compassion 
for that unhappy portion of humanity, and how much his ideas on this point 
differed from those of a blind and hardened world. There is in the heart of 
man a feeling of noble independence, which does not permit him to subject 
himself to the will of another, except when he sees that the claims to his obe- 
dience are founded on legitimate titles. If they are in accordance with reason 
and justice, and, above all, if they have their roots in the great objects of hu- 
man love and veneration, his understanding is convinced, his heart is gained, 
and he yields. But if the reason for the command is only the will of another, 
if it is only man against man, these thoughts of equality ferment in his mind, 
then the feeling of independence burns in his heart, he puts on a bold front, 
and his passions are excited. Therefore, when a willing and lasting obedience 
is to be obtained, it is necessary that the man should be lost sight of in the 
ruler, and that he should only appear as the representative of a superior power, 
or the personification of the motives which convince the subject of the justice 
and utility of his submission ; thus he does not obey the will of another be- 
cause it is that will, but because it is the representative of a superior power, or 
the interpreter of truth and justice ; then man no longer considers his dignity 
outraged, and obedience becomes tolerable and pleasing. 

It is unnecessary to say that such were not the titles on which was founded 
the obedience of slaves before Christianity : custom placed them in the rank of 
brutes ; and the laws, outdoing it if possible, were expressed in language which 
cannot be read without indignation. Masters commanded because such was 
their pleasure, and slaves were compelled to obey, not on account of superior 
motives or moral obligations, but because they were the property of their mas- 
ters, horses governed by the bridle, and mere mechanical machines. Was it, 
then, strange that these unhappy beings, drenched with misfortune and igno- 
miny, conceived and cherished in their hearts that deep rancor, that violent 
hatred, and that terrible thirst for vengeance, which at the first opportunity ex- 
ploded so fearfully ? The horrible massacre of Tyre, the example and terror 
of the universe, according to the expression of Justin ; the repeated revolts of 
the Penestes in Thessaly, of the Helotes in Sparta ; the defections of the slaves 
of Chio and Athens ) the insurrection under the command of Herdonius, and 
the terror which it spread in all the families of Rome ; the scenes of blood, the 
obstinate and desperate resistance of the bands of Spartacus ; was all this any 
thing but the natural result of the system of violence, outrage, and contempt 
with which slaves were treated ? Is it not what we have seen repeated in mo- 
dern times, in the catastrophes of the negro colonies ? Such is the nature of 
man, whoever sows contempt and outrage will reap fury and vengeance. Chris- 
tianity was well aware of these truths ; and this is the reason why, while preach- 
ing obedience, it took care to found it on Divine authority. If it confirmed to 
masters their rights, it also taught them an exalted sense of their obligation. 
Wherever Christian doctrines prevailed, slaves might say : " It is true that we 
are unfortunate ; birth, poverty, or the reverses of war have condemned us to 
misfortune ; but at least we are acknowledged as men and brethren ; between 
us and our masters there is a reciprocity of rights and obligations." Let us 
hear the Apostle : " You, slaves, obey those who are your masters according to 
the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the simplicity of your hearts, as to Jesus 
Christ himself. Not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but, as the ser- 
vants of Christ, doing the will of G-od from the heart. With a good will serv- 
ing, as to the Lord, and not to men. Knowing that whatsoever good things 
any man shall do, the same shall he receive from the Lord, whether he be bond 
or free. And you, masters, do the same thing to them, forbearing threatenings, 
knowing that the Lord both of them and you is in heaven, and there is no respect 
of persons with Him." (Eph. vi. 5-9.) In the Epistle to the Colossians he in- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



99 



culcates the same doctrine of obedience anew, basing it on the same motives ; 
for, to console the unfortunate slaves, he tells, them : "You shall receive of the 
Lord the reward of inheritance : serve ye the Lord Christ. For he that doth 
wrong shall receive for that which he hath done wrongfully, and there is no 
respect of persons with God" (Colos. iii. 24, 25); and lower down, addressing 
himself to masters : "Masters, do to your servants that which is just and equal, 
knowing that you also have a Master in heaven." (iv. 1.) 

The diffusion of such beneficent doctrines necessarily tended to improve 
greatly the condition of slaves ; their immediate effect was to soften that exces- 
sive rigor, that cruelty which would be incredible if it were not incontrovertibly 
proved. We know that the master had the right of life and death, and that 
he abused that power even to putting a slave to death from caprice, as Quintus 
Flaminius did in the midst of a festival. Another caused one of these unfor- 
tunate beings to be thrown to the fishes, because he broke a glass of crystal. 
This is related of Vedius Pollio ; and this horrible cruelty was not confined to 
the circle of a few families subject to a master devoid of compassion; no, cruelty 
was formed into a system, the fatal but necessary result of erroneous notions on 
this point, and of the forgetfulness of the sentiments of humanity. This vio- 
lent system could only be supported by constantly trampling upon the slave ; 
and there was no cessation of tyranny until the day when he, with superior 
power, attacked his master and destroyed him. An ancient proverb said, " So 
many slaves, so many enemies." We have already seen the ravages commixed 
by men thus rendered savage by revenge, whenever they were able to break 
their chains j but certainly, when it was desired to terrify them, their masters 
did not yield to them in ferocity. At Sparta, on one occasion when they feared 
the ill-will of the Helotes, they assembled them all at the temple of Jupiter, 
and put them to death. (Tliucyd. b. iv.) At Rome, whenever a master was 
assassinated, all his slaves were condemned to death. We cannot read in Taci- 
tus without a shudder (Ann. L xiv. 43) the horrible scene which was witnessed 
when the prefect of the town, Pedanius Secundus, was assassinated by one of 
his slaves. Not less than four hundred were to die; all, according to the an- 
cient custom, were to be led to punishment. This cruel and pitiable spectacle, 
in which so many of the innocent were to suffer death, excited the compassion 
of the people, who raised a tumult to prevent this horrid butchery. The Se- 
nate, in doubt, deliberated on the affair, when an orator named Cassius main- 
tained with energy that it was necessary to complete the bloody execution, not 
only in obedience to the ancient custom, but also because without it it would 
be impossible to preserve themselves from the ill-will of the slaves. His words 
are all dictated by injustice and tyranny; he sees on all sides dangers and con- 
spiracies; he can imagine no other safeguards than force and terror. The fol- 
lowing passage is above all remarkable in his speech, as showing in a few words 
the ideas and manners of the ancients in this matter : " Our ancestors," says 
the senator, " always mistrusted the character of slaves, even of those who, 
born on their possessions and in their houses, might be supposed to have con- 
ceived from their cradle an affection for their masters ; but as we have slaves 
of foreign nations, differing in customs and religion, this rabble can only be 
restrained by terror." Cruelty prevailed, the boldness of the people was re- 
pressed, the way was filled with soldiers, and the four hundred unfortunate be- 
ings were led to punishment. 

To soften this cruel treatment, to banish these frightful atrocities, ought to 
have been the first effect of the Christian doctrines ; and we may rest assured 
that the Church never lost sight of so important an object. She devoted all 
her efforts to improve as much as possible the condition of slaves ; in punish- 
ments she caused mildness to be substituted for cruelty; and what was more 
important than all, she labored to put reason in the place of caprice, and to 



100 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



make the impetuosity of masters yield to the calmness of judges ; that is to 
say, she every day assimilated the condition of slaves more and more to that of 
freemen, by making right and not might reign over them. The Church never 
forgot the noble lesson which the Apostle gave when writing to Philemon, and 
interceding in favor of a fugitive slave named Onesimus ; he spoke in his favor 
with a tenderness which this unhappy class had never before inspired : " I be- 
seech thee/' he says to him, " for my son Onesimus. Receive him as my own 
bowels ; no more as a slave, but as a most dear brother. If he hath wronged 
thee in any thing, or is in thy debt, put that to my account." (Epis. to Phil.) 
The Council of Elvira, held in the beginning of the fourth century, subjects 
the woman who shall have beaten her slave so as to cause her death in three 
days to many years of penance ; the Council of Orleans, held in 549, orders 
that if a slave guilty of a fault take refuge in a church, he is to be restored to 
his master, but not without having exacted from the latter a promise, confirmed 
by oath, that he will not do him any harm j that if the master, in violation of 
his oath, maltreat the slave, he shall be separated from the communion of the 
faithful and the sacraments. This canon shows us two things : the habitual 
cruelty of masters, and the zeal of the Church to soften the treatment of slaves. 
To restrain this cruelty, nothing less than an oath was required ; and the Church, 
always so careful in these things, yet considered the matter important enough to 
justify and require the invocation of the sacred name of G-od. 

Jhe favor and protection which the Church granted to slaves rapidly extended. 
It seems that in some places the custom was introduced of requiring a promise 
on oath, not only that the slave who had taken refuge in the church should not 
be ill-treated in his person, but even that no extraordinary work should be im- 
posed on him, and that he should wear no distinctive mark. This custom, pro- 
duced no doubt by zeal for humanity, but which may have occasioned some in- 
conveniences by relaxing too much the ties of obedience, and allowing excesses 
on the part of slaves, appears to be alluded to in a regulation of the Council of 
Epaone (now Abbon, according to some), held about 517. This Council labors 
to stop the evil by prescribing a prudent moderation ; but without withdrawing 
the protection already granted. It ordains, in the 39 th canon, " That if a slave, 
guilty of any atrocious offence, takes refuge in a church, he shall be saved from 
corporal punishment ; but the master shall not be compelled to swear that he 
will not impose on him additional labor, or that he will not cut off his hair, 
in order to make known his fault." Observe that this restriction is introduced 
only in the case when the slave shall have committed a heinous offence, and 
even in this case all the power allowed to the master consists in imposing on the 
slave extraordinary labor, or distinguishing him by cutting his hair. 

Perhaps such indulgence may be considered excessive ; but we must observe 
that when abuses are deeply rooted, they cannot be eradicated without a vigor- 
ous effort. At first sight it often appears as if the limits of prudence were 
passed ; but this apparent excess is only the inevitable oscillation which is ob- 
served before things regain their right position. The Church had therein no 
wish to protect crime, or give unmerited indulgence; her object was to check 
the violence and caprice of masters ; she did not wish to allow a man to suffer 
torture or death because such was the will of another. The establishment of 
just laws and legitimate tribunals, the Church has never opposed ; but she has 
never given her consent to acts of private violence. The spirit of opposition to 
the exercise of private force, which includes social organization, is clearly shown 
to us in the 15th canon of the Council of Merida, held in 666. I have already 
shown that slaves formed a large portion of property. As the division of labor 
was made in conformity with this principle, slaves were absolutely necessary to 
those who possessed property, especially when it was considerable. Now the 
Church found this to be the case ; and as she could not change the organization 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 101 

of society on a sudden, she was obliged to yield to necessity, and admit slavery. 
But if she wished to introduce improvements in the lot of slaves in general, it 
was good for her to set the example herself : this example is found in the canon 
I have just quoted. There, after having forbidden the bishops and priests to 
maltreat the servants of the Church by mutilating their limbs, the Council 
ordains that if a slave commit an offence, he shall be delivered to the secular 
judges, but so that the bishops shall moderate the punishment inflicted on him. 
We see by this canon that the right of mutilation exercised by private masters 
was still in use ; and perhaps it was still more strongly established, since we see 
that the Council limits itself to interdicting that kind of punishment to eccle- 
siastics, without saying any thing as to laymen. No doubt, one of the motives 
for this prohibition made to ecclesiastics, was to prevent their shedding human 
blood, and thus rendering themselves incapable of exercising their lofty minis- 
try, the principal act of which is the august sacrifice in which they offer a vic- 
tim of peace and love ; but this does not in any way detract from the merit of 
the regulation, or at all diminish its influence on the improvement of the con- 
dition of slaves. It was the substitution of public vengeance for private ; it 
was again to proclaim the equality of slaves and freemen with respect to the 
effusion of their blood ; it was to declare that the hands which had shed the 
blood of a slave, had contracted the same stain as if they had shed that of a 
freeman. Now, it was necessary to inculcate these salutary truths on men's 
minds in every way, for they ran in direct contradiction to the ideas and man- 
ners of antiquity; it was necessary to labor assiduously to destroy the shameful 
and cruel exceptions which continued to deprive the majority of mankind of a 
participation in the rights of humanity. There is, in the canon which I have 
just quoted, a remarkable circumstance, which shows the solicitude of the 
Church to restore to slaves the dignity and respect of which they had been de- 
prived. To shave the hair of the head was among the Goths a very ignomi- 
nious punishment ; which, according to Lucas de Tuy, was to them more cruel 
than death itself. It will be understood, that whatever was the force of preju- 
dice on this point, the Church might have allowed the shaving of the hair with- 
out incurring the stain which was attached to the shedding of blood. Yet she 
was not willing to allow it, which shows us how attentive she was to destroy the 
marks of humiliation impressed on slaves. After having enjoined priests and 
bishops to deliver criminal slaves to the judges, she commands them " not to 
allow them to be shaved ignominiously." No care was too great in this matter; 
to destroy one after another the odious exceptions which affected slaves, it was 
necessary to seize upon all favorable opportunities. This necessity is clearly 
shown by the manner in which the eleventh Council of Toledo, held in 675, 
expresses itself. This Council, in its 6th canon, forbids bishops themselves to 
judge crimes of a capital nature, as it also forbids them to order the mutilation 
of members. Behold in what terms it was considered necessary to state that 
this rule admitted of no exception ; " not even," says the Council, " with 
respect to the slaves of the Church." The evil was great, it could not be cured 
without assiduous care. Even the right of life and death, the most cruel of all, 
could not be extirpated without much trouble ; and cruel applications of it were 
made in the beginning of the sixth century, since the Council of Epaone, in its 
34th canon, ordains that " the master who, of Ms own authority, shall take 
away the life of his slave, shall be cut off for two years from the communion of 
the Church." After the middle of the ninth century, similar attempts were 
still made, and the Council of Worms, held in 868, labored to repress them, 
by subjecting to two years of penance the master who, of his own authority, 
shall have put his slave to death. 

i 2 



102 



CHAPTER XVII. 

MEANS EMPLOYED BY THE CHURCH TO ENFRANCHISE SLAVES. 

While improving the condition of slaves and assimilating it as much as 
possible to that of freemen, it was necessary not to forget the universal eman- 
cipation ; for it was not enough to ameliorate slavery, it was necessary to abolish 
it. The mere force of Christian notions, and the spirit of charity which was 
spread at the same time with them over the world, made so violent an attack on 
the state of slavery, that they were sure sooner or later to bring about its com- 
plete abolition. It is impossible for society to remain for a long time under an 
order of things which is formally opposed to the ideas with which it is imbued. 
According to Christian maxims, all men have a common origin and the same 
destiny; all are brethren in Jesus Christ; all are obliged to love each other 
with all their hearts, to assist each other in their necessities, to avoid offending 
each other even in words ; all are equal before Cod, for they will all be judged 
without exception of persons. Christianity extended and took root everywhere 
— took possession of all classes, of all branches of society; how, then, could 
the state of slavery last — a state of degradation which makes man the property 
of another, allows him to be sold like an animal, and deprives him of the 
sweetest ties of family and of all participation in the advantages of society ? 
Two things so opposite could not exist together; the laws were in favor of 
slavery, it is true ; it may even be said that Christianity did not make a direct 
attack on those laws. But, on the other hand, what did it do ? It strove to 
make itself master of ideas and manners, communicated to them a new impulse, 
and gave them a different direction. In such a case, what did laws avail ? 
Their rigor was relaxed, their observance was neglected, their equity began to 
be doubted, their utility was disputed, their fatal effects were remarked, and 
they gradually fell into desuetude, so that sometimes it was not necessary to 
strike a blow to destroy them. They were thrown aside as things of no use ; 
or, if they deserved the trouble of an express abolition, it was only for the sake 
of ceremony; it was a body interred with honor. 

But let it not be supposed, after what I have just said, that in attributing so 
much importance to Christian ideas and manners, I mean that the triumph of 
these ideas and manners was abandoned to that force alone, without that co- 
operation on the part of the Church which the time and circumstances required. 
Quite the contrary : the Church, as I have already pointed out, called to her 
aid all the means the most conducive to the desired result. In the first place, 
it was requisite, to secure the work of emancipation, to protect from all assault 
the liberty of the freed — liberty which unhappily was often attacked and put in 
great danger. The causes of this melancholy fact may be easily found in the 
remains of ancient ideas and manners, in the cupidity of powerful men, the 
system of violence made general by the irruptions of the barbarians, in the 
poverty, neglect, and total want of education and morality in which slaves must 
have been when they quitted servitude. It must be supposed that a great 
number of them did not know all the value of liberty ; that they did not always 
conduct themselves, in their new state, according to the dictates of reason and 
the exigences of justice; and that, newly entered on the possession of the rights 
of freemen, they did not know how to fulfil all their new obligations. But 
these different inconveniences, inseparable from the nature of things, were not 
to hinder the consummation of an enterprise called for both by religion and 
humanity, and it was proper to be resigned to them from the consideration of 
the numerous motives for excusing the conduct of the enfranchised ; the state 
which these men had just quitted had checked the development of their moral 
and intellectual faculties. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



103 



The liberty of newly-euiancipated slaves was protected against the attacks of 
injustice, and clothed with an inviolable sanctity, from the time that their 
enfranchisement was connected with things which then exercised the most pow- 
erful ascendency. Now the Church, and all that belonged to her, was in this 
influential position ; therefore the custom, which was then introduced, of per- 
forming the manumission in the churches, was undoubtedly very favorable to 
the progress of liberty. This custom, by taking the place of ancient usages, 
caused them to be forgotten ; it was, at the same time, a tacit declaration of the 
value of human liberty in the sight of Grod, and a proclamation, with additional 
authority, of the equality of men before Him • for the manumission was made 
in the same place where it was so often read, that before Him there was no ex- 
ception of persons ; where all earthly distinctions disappeared, and all men were 
commingled and united by the sweet ties of fraternity and love. This method 
of manumission more clearly invested the Church with the right of defending 
the liberty of the enfranchised. As she had been witness to the act, she could 
testify to the spontaneity and the other circumstances which assured its validity; 
she could even insist on its observance, by representing that the promised liberty 
could not be violated without profaning the sacred place, without breaking a 
pledge which had been given in the presence of G-od himself. The Church did 
not forget to turn these circumstances to the advantage of the freed. Thus we 
see that the first Council of Orange, held in 441, ordains, in its 7th canon, that 
it was necessary to check, by ecclesiastical censures, whoever desired to reduce 
to any kind of servitude slaves who had been emancipated within the enclosure 
of the church. A century later we find the same prohibition repeated in the 
7th canon of the fifth Council of Orleans, held in 549. 

The protection given by the Church to freed slaves was so manifest and 
known to all, that the custom was introduced of especially recommending them 
to her. This recommendation was sometimes made by will, as the Council of 
Orange, which I have just quoted, gives us to understand ; for it orders that 
the emancipated who had been recommended to the Church by will, shall be 
protected from all kinds of servitude, by ecclesiastical censures. 

But this recommendation was not always made in a testamentary form. We 
read in the sixth canon of the sixth Council of Toledo, held in 589, that when 
any enfranchised persons had been recommended to the Church, neither they 
nor their children could be deprived of the protection of the Church : here they 
speak in general, without limitation to cases in which there had been a will. 
The same regulation may be seen in another Council of Toledo, held in 633, 
which simply says, that the Church will receive under her protection only 
the enfranchised of individuals who shall have taken care to recommend them 
to her. 

In the absence of all particular recommendation, and even when the manu- 
mission had not been made in the Church, she did not cease to interest herself 
in defending the freed, when their liberty was endangered. He who has any 
regard for the dignity of man, and any feeling of humanity in his heart, will 
certainly not find it amiss that the Church interfered in affairs of this kind; 
indeed, she acted as every generous man should do, in the exercise of the right 
of protecting the weak. We shall not be displeased, therefore, to find in the 
twenty-ninth canon of the Council of Agde in Languedoc, held in 506, a regu- 
lation commanding the Church, in case of necessity, to undertake the defence 
of those to whom their masters had given liberty in a lawful way. 

The zeal of the Church in all times and places for the redemption of captives 
has no less contributed to the great work of the abolition of slavery. We know 
that a considerable portion of slaves owed their servitude to the reverses of 
war. The mild character which we see in modern wars would have appeared 
fabulous to the ancients. Woe to the vanquished ! might then be said with 



104 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



perfect truth ; there was nothing but slavery or death. The evil was rendered 
still greater by a fatal prejudice, which was felt with respect to the redemption 
of captives — a prejudice which was, nevertheless, founded on a trait of remark- 
able heroism. No doubt the heroic firmness of Regulus is worthy of all admi- 
ration. The hair stands upon our head when we read the powerful description 
of Horace ; the book falls from our hands at this terrible passage : 

"Fertur pudicse conjugis osculum 
Parvosque natos, ut capitis minor, 
Ab se removisse, et virilem 
Torvus hurni posuisse vultum." — Lib. iii. od. 5. 

Nevertheless, if we lay aside the deep impression which such heroism produces 
on us, and the enthusiasm at all that shows a great soul, we must confess that 
this virtue bordered on ferocity ; and that, in the terrible discourse of Regulus, 
that is a cruel policy, against which the sentiments of humanity would strongly 
recoil, if the mind were not, as it were, prostrated at the sight of the sublime 
disinterestedness of the speaker. Christianity could not consent to such doc- 
trines ; it could not allow the maxim to be maintained that, in order to render 
men brave in battle, it was necessary to deprive them of hope. The wonderful 
traits of valor, the magnificent scenes of force and constancy, which shine in 
every page of the history of modern nations, eloquently show that the Christian 
religion was not deceived ; gentleness of manners may be united with heroism. 
The ancients were always in excess, either in cowardice or ferocity j between 
these two extremes there is a middle way, and that has been taught to mankind 
by the Christian religion. Christianity, in accordance with its principles of 
fraternity and love, regarded the redemption of captives as one of the worthiest 
objects of its charitable zeal. Whether we consider the noble traits of parti- 
cular actions, which have been preserved to us by history, or observe the spirit 
which guided the conduct of the Church, we shall find therein one of the most 
distinguished claims of the Christian religion to the gratitude of mankind. 

A celebrated writer of our times, M. de Chateaubriand, has described to us 
a Christian priest who, in the forests of France, voluntarily made himself a 
slave, who devoted himself to slavery for the ransom of a Christian soldier, and 
thus restored a husband to his desolate wife, and a father to three unfortunate 
orphan children. The sublime spectacle which Zachary offers us, when endur- 
ing slavery with calm serenity for the love of J esus Christ, and for the unhappy 
being for whom he has sacrificed his liberty, is not a mere fiction of the poet. 
More than once, in the first ages of the Church, such examples were seen ; and 
he who has wept over the sublime disinterestedness and unspeakable charity of 
Zachary, may be sure that his tears are only a tribute to the truth. " We 
have known/' says St. Clement the Pope, "many of ours who have devoted 
themselves to captivity, in order to ransom their brethren." (First Letter to the 
Corinth, c. 55.) The redemption of captives was so carefully provided for by 
the Church that it was regulated by the ancient canons, and to fulfil it, she 
sold, if necessary, her ornaments, and even the sacred vessels. When unhappy 
captives were in question, her charity and zeal knew no bounds, and she went 
so far as to ordain that, however bad might be the state of her affairs, their 
ransom should be provided for in the first instance. (Cans. 12, 5, 2.) In the 
midst of revolutions produced by the irruption of barbarians, we see that the 
Church, always constant in her designs, forgot not the noble enterprise in which 
she was engaged. The beneficent regulations of the ancient canons fell not into 
forgetfulness or desuetude, and the generous words of the holy Bishop of Milan, 
in favor of slaves, found an echo which ceased not to be heard amid the chaos 
of those unhappy times. We see by the fifth canon of the Council of Macon, 
held in 585, that priests undertook the ransom of captives by devoting to it the 
Church property. The Council of Rheims, held in 625, inflicts the punishment 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



105 



of suspension from his functions on the bishop who shall have destroyed the 
sacred vessels; but with generous foresight, it adds, "for any other motive 
than the redemption of captives and long afterwards, in the twelfth canon 
of the Council of Verneuil, held in 844, we find that the property of the Church 
was used for that merciful purpose. When the captive was restored to liberty, 
the Church did not deprive him of her protection ; she was careful to continue 
it, by giving him letters of recommendation, for the double purpose of protect- 
ing him from new trouble during his journey, and of furnishing him with the 
means of repairing his losses during his captivity. We find a proof of this new 
kind of protection in the second canon of the Council of Lyons, held in 583, 
which ordains that bishops shall state in the letters of recommendation which 
they give to captives, the date and price of their ransom. The zeal for this 
work was displayed in the Church with so much ardor, that it went so far as to 
commit acts of imprudence which the ecclesiastical authority was compelled to 
check. These excesses, and this mistaken zeal, prove how great was the spirit 
of charity. We know by a Council, called that of St. Patrick, held in Ireland 
in the year 451 or 456, that some of the clergy ventured to procure the free- 
dom of captives by inducing them to run away. The Council, by its thirty- 
second canon, very prudently checks this excess, by ordaining that the ecclesiastic 
who desires to ransom captives must do so with his own money ; for to steal 
them, by inducing them to run away, was to expose the clergy to be considered 
as robbers, which was a dishonor to the Church. A remarkable document, 
which, while showing us the spirit of order and equity which guides the Church, 
at the same time enables us to judge how deeply was engraved on men's minds 
the maxim, that it is holy, meritorious, and generous to give liberty to captives ; 
for we see that some persons had persuaded themselves that the excellence of 
the work justified seizing them forcibly. The disinterestedness of the Church 
on this point is not less laudable. When she had employed her funds in the 
ransom of a captive, she did not desire from him any recompense, even when 
he had it in his power to discharge the debt. We have a certain proof of this 
in the letters of St. Gregory, where we see that that Pope reassures some per- 
sons who had been freed with the money of the Church, and who feared that 
after a time they would be called upon to pay the sum expended for their 
advantage. The Pope orders that no one, at any time, shall venture to disturb 
either them or their heirs, seeing that the sacred canons allow the employment 
of the goods of the Church for the ransom of captives. (L. 7, ep. 14.) 

The zeal of the Church for so holy a work must have contributed in an extra- 
ordinary way to diminish the number of slaves ; the influence of it was so much 
the more salutary, as it was developed precisely at the time when it was most 
needed, that is, in those ages when the dissolution of the Roman empire, the 
irruption of the barbarians, the fluctuations of so many peoples, and the ferocity 
of the invading nations, rendered wars so frequent, revolutions so constant, and 
the empire of force so habitual and prevailing. Without the beneficent and 
liberating intervention of Christianity, the immense number of slaves be- 
queathed by the old society to the new, far from diminishing, would have been 
augmented more and more ; for wherever the law of brute force prevails, if it 
be not checked and softened by a powerful element, the human race becomes 
rapidly debased, the necessary result of which is the increase of slavery. This 
lamentable state of agitation and violence was in itself very likely to render 
the efforts which the Church made to abolish slavery useless j and it was not 
without infinite trouble that she prevented what she succeeded in preserving on 
one side, from being destroyed on the other. The absence of a central power, 
the complication of social relations, almost always badly determined, often 
affected by violence, and always deprived of the guarantee of stability and con- 
sistency, was the reason why there was no security either for things or persons, 



106 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



and that while properties were unceasingly invaded, persons were deprived of 
their liberty. So that it was at that time necessary to fight against the violence 
of individuals, as had been formerly done against manners and legislation. 
We see that the third canon of the Council of Lyons, held about 566, excom- 
municates those who unjustly retain free persons in slavery ; in the seventeenth 
canon of the Council of Eheims, held in 625, it is forbidden, under the same 
penalty, to pursue free persons in order to reduce them to slavery : in the twenty- 
seventh canon of the Council of London, held in 1102, the barbarous custom 
of dealing in men, like animals, is proscribed : and in the seventh canon of the 
Council of Coblentz, held in 922, he who takes away a Christian to sell him is 
declared guilty of homicide • a remarkable declaration, when we see liberty 
valued at as high a price as life itself. Another means of which the Church 
availed herself to abolish slavery was, to preserve for the unfortunate who had 
been reduced to that state by misery, a sure means of quitting it. 

We have already remarked above that indigence was one of the causes of 
slavery, and we have seen that this was frequently the cause among the Gauls, 
as is evidenced by a passage of Csesar. We also know that by virtue of an 
ancient law, he who had fallen into slavery could not recover his liberty without 
the consent of his master ; as the slave was really property, no one could dis- 
pose of him without the consent of his master, and least of all himself. This 
law was in accordance with Pagan doctrines, but Christianity regarded the thing 
differently ; and if the slave was still in her eyes a property, he did not cease 
to be a man. Thus on this point the Church refused to follow the strict rules 
of other properties ; and when there was the least doubt, at the first favorable 
opportunity she took the side of the slave. These observations make us under- 
stand all the value of the new law introduced by the Church, which ordained 
that persons who had been sold by necessity should be able to return to their 
former condition by restoring the price which they had received. This law, 
which is expressly laid down in a French Council, held about 616 at Boneuil, 
according to the common opinion, opened a wide field for the conquests of 
liberty • it supported in the heart of the slave a hope which urged him to seek 
and put into operation the means of obtaining his ransom, and it placed his 
liberty within the power of any one who, touched with his unhappy lot, was 
willing to pay or lend the necessary sum. Let us remember what we have said 
of the ardent zeal which was awakened in so many hearts for works of this 
kind ; let us call to mind that the property of the Church was always considered 
as well employed when it was used for the succor of the unfortunate, and we 
shall understand the incalculable influence of the regulation which we have just 
mentioned. We shall see that it was to close one of the most abundant sources 
of slavery, and prepare a wide path to universal emancipation. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT. 

The conduct of the Church with respect to the Jews also contributed to the 
abolition of slavery. This singular people, who bear on their forehead the mark 
of proscription, and are found dispersed among all nations, like fragments of 
insoluble matter floating in a liquid, seek to console themselves in their misfor- 
tune by accumulating treasures, and appear to wish* to avenge themselves for 
the contemptuous neglect in which they are left by other nations, by gaining 
possession of their wealth by means of insatiable usury. In times when revo- 
lutions and so many calamities must necessarily have produced distress, the 
odious vice of unfeeling avarice must have had a fatal influence. The harsh- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



107 



less and cruelty of ancient laws and manners concerning debtors were not 
effaced, liberty was far from being estimated at its just value, and examples of 
persons who sold it to relieve their necessities were not wanting; it was there- 
fore important to prevent the power of the wealthy Jews from reaching an 
exorbitant extent, to the detriment of the liberty of Christians. The unhappy 
notoriety which, after so many centuries, attaches to the Jews in this matter, 
proves that this danger was not imaginary; and facts of which we are now 
witnesses are a confirmation of what we advance. The celebrated Herder, in his 
Adrastus, ventures to prognosticate that the children of Israel, from their sys- 
tematic and calculating conduct, will in time make slaves of all Christians. If 
this extraordinary and extravagant apprehension could enter the head of a dis- 
tinguished man, in circumstances which are certainly infinitely less favorable to 
the J ews, what was to be feared from this people in the unhappy times of which 
we speak ? From these considerations, every impartial observer, every man who 
is not under the influence of the wretched desire of taking the part of every 
kind of sect, in order to have the pleasure of accusing the Catholic Church, 
even at the risk of speaking against the interests of humanity; every observer 
who is not one of those who are less alarmed by an irruption of Caffres than 
by any regulation by which the ecclesiastical power appears in the smallest 
degree to extend the circle of its prerogative ; every man, I say, who is neither 
thus bitter, little, nor pitiful, will see, not only without being scandalized, but 
even with pleasure, that the Church, with prudent vigilance, watched the pro- 
gress of the Jews, and lost no opportunity of favoring their Christian slaves, 
until they were no longer allowed to have any. 

The third Council of Orleans, held in 538, by its 13th canon, forbids Jews to 
compel Christian slaves to do things contrary to the religion of Jesus Christ. 
This regulation, which guarantied the liberty of the slave in the sanctuary of 
conscience, rendered him respectable even in the eyes of his master : it was 
besides a solemn proclamation of the dignity of man, it was a declaration that 
slavery could not extend its dominion over the sacred region of the mind. Yet 
this was not enough ; it was proper also that the recovery of their liberty should 
be facilitated to the slaves of Jews. Three years only pass away ; a fourth 
Council is held at Orleans ; let us observe the progress which the question had 
made in so short a time. This Council, by its 30th canon, allows the Christian 
slaves who shall take refuge in the church to be ransomed, on paying to their 
Jewish master the proper price. If we pay attention, we shall see that such a 
regulation must have produced abundant results in favor of liberty, as it gave 
Christian slaves the opportunity of flying to the churches, and there imploring, 
with more effect, the charity of their brethren, to gain the price of their ran- 
som. The same Council, in its 31st canon, ordains that the Jew who shall per- 
vert a Christian slave shall be condemned to lose all his slaves ; a new sanction 
given to the security of the slave's conscience — a new way opened to liberty. 
The Church constantly advanced with that unity of plan — that admirable con- 
sistency — which even her enemies have acknowledged in her. In the short 
interval between the period alluded to and the latter part of the same cen- 
tury, her progress was more perceptible. We observe, in the canonical regula- 
tions of the latter period, a wider scope, and, if we may so speak, greater bold- 
ness. In the Council of Macon, held in 581 or 582, canon 16, Jews are ex- 
pressly forbidden to have Christian slaves ; and it is allowed to ransom those 
who are in their possession for twelve sous. We find the same prohibition in 
the 14th canon of the Council of Toledo, held in 589 ; so that at this time the 
Church shows what her desire is ; she is unwilling that a Christian should be in 
any way the slave of a Jew. Constant in her design, she checked the evil by 
all the means in her power; if it was necessary, limiting the right of sell- 
ing slaves, when there was danger of their falling into the hands of Jews. 



108 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Thus we see that, by the 9th canon of the Council of Chalons, held in 650, it 
is forbidden to sell slaves out of the kingdom of Clovis, lest they should fall 
into the power of J ews. Yet the intention of the Church on this point was not 
understood by all, and her views were not seconded as they ought to have been ; 
but she did not cease to repeat and inculcate them. In the middle of the seventh 
century there were found clergy and laity who sold their Christian slaves to 
Jews. The Church labored to check this abuse. The tenth Council of Toledo, 
held in 657, by its 7th canon, forbids Christians, and especially clerics, to sell 
their slaves to Jews ; the Council adds these noble words : " They cannot be 
ignorant that these slaves have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ ; 
wherefore they ought rather to buy than sell them." 

This ineffable goodness of a God made man, who had shed His blood for the 
redemption of all men, was the powerful motive which urged the Church to 
interest herself with so much zeal in the enfranchisement of slaves ; and, in- 
deed, was it not enough to inspire horror for so degrading an inequality, to 
think that these same men, reduced to the level of brutes, had been, as well as 
their masters, as well as the most powerful monarchs upon earth, the objects 
of the merciful intentions of the Most High? " Since our Redeemer, the 
Creator of all things/' said Pope S. Gregory, " has deigned, in His goodness, 
to assume the flesh of man, in order to restore to us our pristine liberty, by 
breaking, through the means of His Divine grace, the bonds of servitude, which 
held us captives, it is a salutary deed to restore to men, by enfranchisement, 
their native liberty ; for, in the beginning, nature made them all free, and they 
have only been subjected to the yoke of servitude by the law of nations." 
(L. 5, lett. 72.) 

During all times the Church has considered it very necessary to limit, as 
much as possible, the alienation of her property; and it may be said that the 
general rule of her conduct in this point was to trust very little to the discretion 
of any one of her ministers individually; she thus endeavored to prevent dila- 
pidations, which otherwise would have been frequent. As her possessions were 
dispersed on all sides, and intrusted to ministers chosen from all classes of the 
people, and exposed to the various influences which the relations of blood, friend- 
ship, and a thousand other circumstances, the effects of difference of character, 
knowledge, prudence, and even of times and places, always exercise, the Church 
showed herself very watchful in giving her sanction to the power of alienation ; 
and, when requisite, she knew how to act with salutary rigor against those mi- 
nisters who, neglecting their duty, wasted the funds confided to them. We 
have seen that, in spite of all this, she was not stopped by any consideration 
when the ransom of captives was in question ; it may be also shown that, with 
respect to property in slaves, she saw things in a different light, and changed 
her rigor into indulgence. When slaves had faithfully served the Church, the 
Bishops could grant them their liberty, and add a gift to assist them in main- 
taining themselves. This judgment as to the merit of slaves appears to have 
been confided to the discretion of the Bishops ; and it is evident that such a 
regulation opened a wide door to their charity; at the same time, it stimulated 
the slaves to behave themselves, so as to deserve so precious a recompense. As 
it might happen that the succeeding Bishop might raise doubts as to the suffi- 
ciency of the motives which induced his predecessor to give liberty to a slave, 
and attempt afterwards to call it in question, it was ordained that they should 
respect the appointments of their predecessors on this point, and leave to the 
enfranchised not only their liberty, but also the gratuity which had been given 
to them in lands, vineyards, or houses : this is prescribed in the 7th canon of 
the Council of Agde in Languedoc, held in the year 506. Let it not be ob- 
jected that manumission is forbidden by the canons of this Council in other 
places; they speak only in general terms, and allude not to cases where slaves 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



109 



had merited well. Alienations or mortgages made by a Bishop who left no pro- 
perty were to be revoked. This regulation itself shows that it alludes to eases 
in which the Bishops had acted against the canons. Yet if he had given liberty 
to any slaves, the rigor of the law was mitigated in their favor, and it was 
ordained that the enfranchised should continue to enjoy their liberty. This is 
ordained by the 9th canon of the Council of Orleans, held in 541. This canon 
only imposes on the enfranchised the obligation of lending their services to the 
Church ■ services which were evidently only those of the enfranchised. On the 
other hand, she recompensed them with the protection which she always granted 
to men in this condition. 

As another proof of the indulgence of the Church with respect to slaves, 
may be cited the 10th canon of the Council of Celchite, in England, held in 
816, the result of which must have been to enfranchise, in a few years, all the 
English slaves of the Churches existing in the countries where the Council was 
observed. Indeed, this canon ordained that, at the death of a Bishop, all his 
English slaves should be set at liberty; it added, that each of the other Bishops . 
and Abbots might enfranchise three slaves on the occasion, by giving each of 
them three sous. Such regulations smoothed the way more and more, and pre- 
pared circumstances and men's minds, so that, some time later, was witnessed 
that noble scene, where, at the Council of Armagh, in 1172, liberty was given 
to all the English who were slaves in Ireland. 

The advantageous conditions enjoyed by the slaves of the Church were so 
much the more valuable, because a regulation newly introduced prevented their 
losing them. If they could have passed into the hands of other masters, in this 
case they would have lost the benefits which they derived from living under the 
rule of so kind a mistress. But happily, it was forbidden to exchange them for 
others ; and if they left the power of the Church, it was for freedom. We have 
a positive proof of this regulation in the decretals of Gregory IX. (1. 3, t. 19, 
chaps. 3 and 4). It should be observed that in this document the slaves of the 
Church are regarded as consecrated to God ; thereon is founded the regulation 
which prevents their passing into other hands and leaving the Church, except as 
freemen. We also see there that the faithful, for the good of their souls, had 
the custom of offering their slaves to God and the Saints. By placing them 
thus in the power of the Church, they put them out of common dealing and 
prevented their again falling into profane servitude. It is useless to enlarge on 
the salutary effect which must have been produced by these ideas and manners, 
in which we see religion so intimately allied with the cause of humanity ; it is 
enough to observe, that the spirit of that age was highly religious, and that 
which was attached to the cause of religion was sure to ride in safety. 

Keligious ideas, by constantly developing their strength and directing their 
action to all branches, were intended in a special manner to relieve men by all 
possible means from the yoke of slavery. On this subject we may be allowed 
to remark a canonical regulation of the time of Gregory the Great. In a Coun- 
cil at Rome, held in 595, and presided over by that Pope, a new means of 
escaping from their degraded state was offered to slaves, by deciding that liberty 
should be given to all those who desired to embrace the monastic life. The 
words of the holy Pope are worthy of attention ; they show the ascendency of 
religious motives, and how much these motives preponderated over considera- 
tions and interests of a worldly nature. This important document is found 
in the letters of St. Gregory; it may be read in the notes at the end of the 
volume. 

To imagine that such regulations would remain barren, is to mistake the spirit 
of those times : on the contrary, they produced the most important effects. We 
may form an idea of them by reading in the decree of Gratian (Distin. 54, c. 12), 
that they led to scandal ; slaves fled from the houses of their masters and took 

K 



110 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



refuge in monasteries, under pretext of religion. It was necessary to check this 
abuse, against which complaints arose on all sides. Without waiting to consi- 
der what these abuses themselves indicate, is it difficult to imagine that these 
regulations of the Church must have had valuable results ? They not only 
gained liberty for a great many slaves, but also raised them very much in the 
eyes of the world, for they placed them in a state which every day gained im- 
portance and acquired an immense prestige and a powerful influence. We may 
form an idea of the profound change which took place every day in the organi- 
zation of society, thanks to these various means, by fixing our attention for a 
moment on what resulted with respect to the ordination of slaves. The disci- 
pline of the Church on this point was in accordance with her doctrines. The 
slave was a man like other men, and he could be ordained as well as the greatest 
noble. Yet while he was subject to the power of his master, he was devoid of 
the independence necessary for the dignity of the sacred ministry; therefore it 
was required that he should not be ordained until he had been previously set at 
liberty. Nothing could be more just, reasonable, and prudent, than the limit 
thus placed on a discipline otherwise so noble and generous — a discipline which 
was in itself an eloquent protest in favor of the dignity of man. The Church 
solemnly declared that the misfortune of being a slave did not reduce him below 
the level of other men, for she did not think it unworthy of her to choose her 
ministers from among those who had been in servitude. By placing in so ho- 
norable a sphere those who had been slaves, she labored with lofty generosity 
to disperse the prejudices which existed against those who were placed in that 
unhappy condition, and created strong and effective ties between them and the 
most venerated class of freemen. The abuse which then crept in of conferring 
orders on slaves, without the consent of their masters, is above all worthy of our 
attention ; an abuse, it is true, altogether contrary to the sacred canons, and 
which was checked by the Church with praiseworthy zeal, but which is not the 
less useful in enabling the observer duly to appreciate the profound effect of 
religious ideas and institutions. Without attempting in any way to excuse what 
was blamable therein, we may very well make use of the abuse itself, by con- 
sidering that it frequently happens that abuses are only exaggerations of a good 
principle. Religious ideas accord but ill with slavery, although supported by 
laws ; thence the incessant struggle, repeated under different aspects, but always 
directed towards the same end, viz. universal emancipation. It appears to us 
that we may now the more confidently avail ourselves of this kind of argument, 
as we have seen the most dreadful attempts at revolution treated with indul- 
gence, on account of the principles with which the revolutionists were imbued 
and the objects which they had in view j objects which, as every one knows, 
were nothing less than an entire change in the organization of society. The 
abuse to which we have alluded, is attested by the curious documents which are 
found collected in the decree of Grratian [Dist. 54, c. 9, 10, 11, 12). When we 
examine these documents with attention, we find, 1st, that the number of slaves 
thus freed was very considerable, since the complaints on this subject were 
almost universal : 2d, that the Bishops were generally in favor of the slaves j 
that they carried their protection very far; that they labored in all ways to 
realize these doctrines of equality ; indeed, it is affirmed in these documents 
that there was hardly a Bishop who could not be charged with this reprehensi- 
ble compliance : 3d, that slaves were aware of this spirit of protection, and were 
eager to throw off their chains and cast themselves into the arms of the Church : 
4th, that this combination of circumstances must have produced in men's minds 
a movement very favorable to liberty; and that this affectionate communication 
established between slaves and the Church, then so powerful and influential, 
must soon have weakened slavery, and rapidly have promoted the advance of 
nations towards that liberty which completely triumphed a few centuries later. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Ill 



The Church of Spain, whose civilizing influence has received so many eulogiums 
from men certainly but little attached to Catholicity, equally displays her lofty 
views and consummate prudence on this point. Charitable zeal in favor of 
slaves was so ardent, the tendency to raise them to the sacred ministry so de- 
cided, that it was necessary to allow free scope to this generous impulse, while 
reconciling it as much as possible with the sacredness of the ministry. Such 
was the two-fold object of the discipline introduced into Spain, by virtue of 
which it was allowed to confer sacred orders on the slaves of the Church, on 
their being previously enfranchised. This is ordered by the 74th canon of the 
fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633; it is also inferred from the 11th canon 
of the ninth Council of Toledo, which ordains that Bishops shall not introduce 
the slaves of the Church among the clergy without having previously given 
them their liberty. 

It is remarkable that this regulation was extended by the 18th canon of the 
Council of Merida, in 666, which gives to parish-priests the right of selecting 
clerks among the slaves of their own church, with the obligation of maintain- 
ing them according to their means. This wise discipline prevented, without any 
injustice, all the difficulties that might have ensued from the ordination of 
slaves j while it was a very mild way of effecting the most beneficent results, 
since in conferring orders on the slaves of the Church, it was easy to choose 
from among them such as were most deserving by their intellectual and moral 
qualifications. At the same time, it was affording the Church a most favorable 
and honorable mode of liberating her slaves, by enrolling them among her mi- 
nisters. Finally, the Church by her generous conduct towards slaves, gave a 
salutary example to the laity. We have seen that she allowed the parochial 
clergy, as well as the bishops, the privilege of setting them free \ and this must 
have rendered it less painful for laymen to emancipate their slaves, when cir- 
cumstances seemed to call the latter to the sacred ministry. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

DOCTRINES OF S. AUGUSTINE AND S. THOMAS AQUINAS ON THE SUBJECT OF 
SLAVERY. — RESUME OF THE SUBJECT. 

Thus did the Church, by a variety of means, break the chains of slavery, 
without ever exceeding the limits marked out by justice and prudence : thus 
did she banish from among Christians that degrading condition, so contrary to 
their exalted ideas on the dignity of man, and their generous feelings of frater- 
nity and love. Wherever Christianity shall be introduced, chains of iron shall 
be turned into gentle ties, and humiliated men shall raise their ennobled heads. 
With what pleasure do we read the remarks of one of the greatest men of 
Christianity, S. Augustine, on this point (Be Civit. Dei, 1 xix. c. 14, 15, 16). 
He establishes in a few words the obligation incumbent upon all who rule — 
fathers, husbands, and masters — to watch over the good of those who are under 
them : he lays down the advantage of those who obey, as one of the founda- 
tions for obedience ; he says that the just do not rule from ambition or pride, 
but from duty and the desire of doing good to their subjects: "Neque enim 
dominandi cupiditate imperant, sed officio consulendi, nec principandi superbia, 
sed providendi misericordia and by these noble maxims he proscribes all 
opinions which tend to tyranny, or found obedience on any degrading notions ; 
but on a sudden, as if this great mind apprehended some reply in violation of 
human dignity, he grows warm, he boldly faces the question ; he rises to his 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



full height, and, giving free scope to the noble thoughts that ferment in his 
mind, he invokes the idea of nature and the will of God in favor of the dignity 
of man thus menaced. He says : " Thus wills the order of nature ; thus has 
man been created by God. He has given him to rule over the fishes of the sea, 
the birds of the air, and the reptiles that crawl on the face of the earth. He 
has ordained that reasoning creatures, made according to His own image, shall 
rule only over creatures devoid of reason. He has not established the dominion 
of man over man, but that of man over the brute." This passage of S. Augus- 
tine is one of those bold features which shine forth in writers of genius, when 
grieved by the sight of a painful object, they allow their generous ideas and 
feelings to have free scope, and cease to restrain their daring energies. Struck 
by the force of the expression, the reader, in suspense and breathless, hastens 
to read the succeeding lines ; he fears that the author may be mistaken, seduced 
by the nobleness of his heart, and carried away by the force of his genius. 
But, with inexpressible pleasure, he finds that the writer has in no degree de- 
parted from the path of true doctrine, when, like a brave champion, he has 
descended into the arena to defend the cause of justice and humanity. Thus 
does S. Augustine now appear to us : the sight of so many unfortunate beings 
groaning in slavery, victims of the violence and caprice of their masters, 
afflicted his generous mind. By the light of reason and the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, he saw no reason why so considerable a portion of the human race 
should be condemned to live in such debasement ; wherefore, when proclaiming 
the doctrines of submission and obedience, he labors to discover the cause of 
such ignominy; and not being able to find it in the nature of man, he seeks for 
it in sin, in malediction. "The primitive just men," says he, "were rather 
established as pastors over their flocks, than as kings over other men ; whereby 
God gives us to understand what was called for by the order of creation, and 
what was required by the punishment of sin ; for the condition of slavery has, 
with reason, been imposed on the sinner. Thus we do not find the word slave 
in the Scriptures before the day when the just man, Noah, gave it as a punish- 
ment to his guilty son; whence it follows that this word came from sin, and not 
from nature." This manner of considering slavery as the offspring of sin, as 
the fruit of the Divine malediction, was of the highest importance. By pro- 
tecting the dignity of human nature, that doctrine completely destroyed all the 
prejudices of natural superiority which the pride of free men could entertain. 
Thereby also, slavery was deprived of all its supposed value as a political prin- 
ciple or means of government : it could only be regarded as one of the num- 
berless scourges inflicted on the human race by the anger of the Most High. 
Henceforth slaves had a motive for resignation, while the absolute power of 
masters was checked, and the compassion of all free men was powerfully excited. 
All were born in sin, all might have been in a state of slavery. To make a 
boast of liberty would have been like the conduct of a man who, during an epi- 
demic, should boast of having preserved his health, and imagine that on that 
account he had a right to insult the unhappy sick. In a word, the state of sla- 
very was a scourge, nothing more ; like pestilence, war, famine, or any thing 
else of the kind. The duty of all men was to labor to remedy and abolish it. 
Such doctrines did not remain sterile. Proclaimed in the face of day, they were 
heard in all parts of the Catholic world ; and not only were they put in prac- 
tice, as we have seen by numberless examples, but they were carefully preserved 
as a precious theory, throughout the confusion of the times. After the lapse 
of eight centuries, we see them repeated by one of the brightest lights of the 
Catholic Church, S. Thomas Aquinas (I. p. q. xcvi. art. 4). That great man 
does not see in slavery either difference of race or imaginary inferiority or means 
of government ; he only considers it as a scourge inflicted on humanity by the 
sins of the first man. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. . 113 



Such is the repugnance with which Christians have looked upon slavery : we 
see from this, how false is the assertion of M. G-uizot : " It does not seem that 
Christian society was surprised or much offended by it." It is true there was 
not that blind disturbance and irritation which, despising all barriers and pay- 
ing no attention to the rules of justice or the counsels of prudence, ran with 
foolish haste to efface the mark of degradation and ignominy. But if that dis- 
turbance and irritation are meant which are caused by the sight of oppression 
and outrages committed against man, sentiments which can well accord with 
longanimity and holy resignation, and which, without checking for a moment 
the action of charitable zeal, nevertheless avoid precipitating events, preferring 
mature arrangement in order to secure a complete result ; how can this pertur- 
bation of mind and holy indignation be better proved to have existed in the 
bosom of the Church than by the facts and doctrines which we have just quoted? 
"What more eloquent protest against the continuance of slavery can you have 
than the doctrine of these two illustrious doctors ? They declare it, as we have 
just seen, to be the fruit of malediction, the chastisement of the prevarication 
of the human race ; and they only acknowledge its existence by considering it 
as one of the great scourges that afflict humanity. 

I have explained, with sufficient evidence, the profound reasons which in- 
duced the Church to recommend obedience to slaves, and she cannot be re- 
proached on that account with forgetting the rights of humanity. We must 
not suppose on that account that Christian society was wanting in the boldness 
necessary for telling the whole truth ; but it told only the pure and wholesome 
truth. What took place with respect to the marriages of slaves is a proof of 
what I advance. We know that their union was not regarded as a real mar- 
riage, and that even that union, such as it was, could not be contracted without 
the consent of their masters, under pain of being considered as void. Here 
was a flagrant violation of reason and justice. What did the Church do ? She 
directly reprobated so gross a violation of the rights of nature. Let us hear 
what Pope Adrian I. said on this subject: "According to the words of the 
Apostles, as in Jesus Christ we ought not to deprive either slaves or freemen of 
the sacraments of the Church, so it is not allowed in any way to prevent the 
marriage of slaves ; and if their marriages have been contracted in spite of the 
opposition and repugnance of their masters, nevertheless they ought not to be 
dissolved in any way/' {Be Conju. Serv., lib. iv. torn. 9, c. 1.) And let it not 
be supposed that this regulation, which secured the liberty of slaves on one of 
the most important points, was restricted to particular circumstances ; no, it 
was something more ; it was a proclamation of their freedom in this matter. 
The Church was unwilling to allow that man, reduced to the level of the brute, 
should be forced to obey the caprice or the interest of another, without regard 
to the feelings of his heart. St. Thomas was of the same opinion, for he openly 
maintains that, with respect to the contracting of marriage, slaves are not obliged 
to obey their masters (2 a . 2, q. 104, art. 5). 

In the hasty sketch which I have given, I believe that I have kept the pro- 
mise which I made at the beginning, not to advance ariy proposition without 
supporting it by undeniable documents, and not to allow myself to be misled 
by enthusiasm in favor of Catholicity, so as to concede to it that to which it is 
not entitled. By passing, rapidly it is true, the course of ages, we have shown, 
by convincing proofs, which have been furnished by times and places the most 
various, that it was Catholicity that abolished slavery, in spite of ideas, manners, 
interests, and laws, which opposed obstacles apparently invincible ; and that it 
has done so without injustice, without violence, without revolutions, — with the 
most exquisite prudence and the most admirable moderation. We have seen 
the Catholic Church make so extensive, so varied, and so efficacious an attack on 
slavery, that that odious chain was broken without a single violent stroke. 



114 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Exposed to the action of the most powerful agents, it gradually relaxed and 
fell to pieces. Her proceedings may be thus recapitulated : — 

First, she loudly teaches the truth concerning the dignity of man ; she defines 
the obligations of masters and slaves ; she declares them equal before God, and 
thus completely destroys the degrading theories which stain the writings even 
of the greatest philosophers of antiquity. She then comes to the application 
of her doctrines : she labors to improve the treatment of slaves ; she struggles 
against the atrocious right of life and death; she opens her temples to them as 
asylums, and when they depart thence, prevents their being ill-treated ; she 
labors to substitute public tribunals for private vengeance. At the same time 
that the Church guarantees the liberty of the enfranchised, by connecting it 
with religious motives, she defends that of those born free ; she labors to close 
the sources of slavery, by displaying the most active zeal for the redemption of 
captives, by opposing the avarice of the Jews, by procuring for men who were 
sold, easy means of recovering their liberty. The Church gives an example of 
mildness and disinterestedness \ she facilitates emancipation, by admitting slaves 
into monasteries and the ecclesiastical state ; she facilitates it by all the other 
means that charity suggests ; and thus it is that, in spite of the deep roots of 
slavery in ancient society — in spite of the perturbation caused by the irruptions 
of the barbarians — in spite of so many wars and calamities of every kind, which 
in great measure paralyzed the effect of all regulating and beneficent action — 
yet we see slavery, that dishonor and leprosy of ancient civilization, rapidly di- 
minish among Christians, until it finally disappears. Surely in all this we do 
not discover a plan conceived and concerted by men. But we do observe there- 
in, in the absence of that plan, such unity of tendencies, such a perfect identity 
of views, and such similarity in the means, that we have the clearest demon- 
stration of the civilizing and liberating spirit contained in Catholicity. Accurate 
observers will no doubt be gratified in beholding, in the picture which I have 
just exhibited, the admirable concord with which the period of the empire, that 
of the irruption of the barbarians, and that of feudality, all tended towards the 
same end. They will not regret the poor regularity which distinguishes the 
exclusive work of man ; they will love, I repeat it, to collect all the facts scat- 
tered in the seeming disorder, from the forests of Germany to the fields of 
Boeotia — from the banks of the Thames to those of the Tiber. I have not in- 
vented these facts ; I have pointed out the periods, and cited the Councils. The 
reader will find, at the end of the volume, in the original and in full, the texts 
of which I have just given an abstract — a resume : thus he may fully convince 
himself that I have not deceived him. If such had been my intention, surely 
I should have avoided descending to the level ground of facts ; I should have 
preferred the vague regions of theory; I should have called to my aid high 
sounding and seductive language, and all the means the most likely to enchant 
the imagination and excite the feelings ; in fine, I should have placed myself in 
one of those positions where a writer can suppose at his pleasure things which 
have never existed, and made the best use of the resources of imagination and 
invention. The task which I have undertaken is rather more difficult, perhaps 
less brilliant, but certainly more useful: 

We may now inquire of M. Guizot what were the other causes, the other ideas, 
the other principles of civilization, the great development of which, to avail myself 
of his words, was necessary " to abolish this evil of evils, this iniquity of ini- 
quities." Ought he not to explain, or at least point out, these causes, ideas, 
and principles of civilization, which, according to him, assisted the Church in 
the abolition of slavery, in order to save the reader the trouble of seeking or 
divining them ? If they did not arise in the bosom of the Church, where did 
they arise ? Were they found in the ruins of ancient civilization ? But could 
these remains of a scattered and almost annihilated civilization effect what that 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



115 



same civilization, in all its vigor, power, and splendor, never did or thought of 
doing ? — Were they in the individual independence of the barbarians ? But 
that individuality, the inseparable companion of violence, must consequently 
have been the source of oppression and slavery. Were they found in the mili- 
tary patronage introduced, according to M. Gi-uizot, by the barbarians themselves; 
patronage which laid the foundation of that aristocratical organization which 
was converted at a later period into feudality ? But what could this patronage 
— an institution likely, on the contrary, to perpetuate slavery among the indi- 
gent in conquered countries, and to extend it to a considerable portion of the 
conquerors themselves — what could this patronage do for the abolition of sla- 
very? Where, then, is the idea, the custom, the institution, which, born out 
of Christianity, contributed to the abolition of slavery ? Let any one point out 
to us the epoch of its formation, the time of its development ; let him show us 
that it had not its origin in Christianity, and we will then confess that the latter 
cannot exclusively lay claim to the glorious title of having abolished that de- 
graded condition ; and he may be sure that this shall not prevent our exalting 
that idea, custom, or institution which took part in the great and noble enter- 
prise of liberating the human race. 

We may be allowed, in conclusion, to inquire of the Protestant churches, of 
those ungrateful daughters who, after having quitted the bosom of their mother, 
attempt to calumniate and dishonor her, where were you when the Catholic 
Church accomplished in Europe the immense work of the abolition of slavery? 
and how can you venture to reproach her with sympathizing with servitude, de- 
grading man, and usurping his rights ? Can you, then, present any such claim 
entitling you to the gratitude of the human race ? What part can you claim 
in that great work which prepared the way for the development and grandeur 
of European civilization ? Catholicity alone, without your concurrence, com- 
pleted the work ; and she alone would have conducted Europe to its lofty 
destinies, if you had not come to interrupt the majestic march of its mighty 
nations, by urging them into a path bordered by precipices, — a path the end 
of which is concealed by darkness which the eye of God alone can pierce. (15) 



CHAPTER XX. 

CONTRAST BETWEEN TWO ORDERS OP CIVILIZATION. 

We have seen that European civilization owes to the Catholic Church its 
finest ornament, its most valuable victory in the cause of humanity, the aboli- 
tion of slavery. It was the Church that, by her doctrines, as beneficent as ele- 
vated, by a system as efficacious as prudent, by her unbounded generosity, her 
indefatigable zeal, her invincible firmness, abolished slavery in Europe ; that is 
to say, she took the first step towards the regeneration of humanity, and laid 
the first stone for the wide and deep foundation of European civilization ; we 
mean the emancipation of slaves, the abolition for ever of so degrading a state, 
— universal liberty. It was impossible to create and organize a civilization full 
of grandeur and dignity, without raising man from his state of abjection, and 
placing him above the level of animals. Whenever we see him crouching -at 
another's feet, awaiting with anxiety the orders of his master or trembling at 
the lash ; whenever he is sold like a beast, or a price is set upon his powers and 
his life, civilization will never have its proper development, it will always be 
weak, sickly, and broken ; for thus humanity bears a mark of ignominy on its 
forehead. 

After having shown that it was Catholicity that removed that obstacle to all 
social progress, by, as it were, cleansing Europe of the disgusting leprosy with 



116 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



which it was infected from head to foot, let us examine what it has done towards 
creating and erecting the magnificent edifice of European civilization. If we 
seriously reflect on the vitality and fruitfulness of this civilization, we shall find 
therein new and powerful claims on the part of the Catholic Church to the 
gratitude of nations. In the first place, it is proper to glance at the vast and 
interesting picture which European civilization presents to us, and to sum up in a 
few words its principal perfections ; thereby we shall be enabled the more easily 
to account to ourselves for the admiration and enthusiasm with which it 
inspires us. 

The individual animated by a lively sense of his own dignity, abounding in 
activity, perseverance, energy, and the simultaneous development of all his 
faculties ; woman elevated to the rank of the consort of man, and, as it were, 
recompensed for the duty of obedience by the respectful regards lavished upon 
her; the gentleness and constancy of family ties, protected by the powerful 
guarantees of good order and justice ; an admirable public conscience, rich in 
maxims of sublime morality, in laws of justice and equity, in sentiments of 
honor and dignity ; a conscience which survives the shipwreck of private moral- 
ity, and does not allow unblushing corruption to reach the height which it did 
in antiquity ; a general mildness of manners, which in war prevents great ex- 
cesses, and in peace renders life more tranquil and pleasing ; a profound respect 
for man, and all that belongs to him, which makes private acts of violence very 
uncommon, and in all political constitutions serves as a salutary check on go- 
vernments ; an ardent desire of perfection in all departments ; an irresistible 
tendency, sometimes ill-directed, but always active, to improve the condition of 
the many ; a secret impulse to protect the weak, to succour the unfortunate — an 
impulse which sometimes pursues its course with generous ardor, and which, 
whenever it is unable to develop itself, remains in the heart of society, and pro- 
duces there the uneasiness and disquietude of remorse ; a cosmopolitan spirit 
of universality, of propagandism, an inexhaustible fund of resources to grow 
young again without danger of perishing, and for self-preservation in the most 
important junctures; a generous impatience, which longs to anticipate the 
future, and produces an incessant movement and agitation, sometimes dangerous, 
but which are generally the germs of great benefits, and the symptoms of a 
strong principle of life ; such are the great characteristics which distinguish 
European civilization ; such are the features which place it in a rank immensely 
superior to that of all other civilizations, ancient and modern. 

Read the history of antiquity; extend your view over the whole world; 
wherever Christianity does not reign, and where the barbarous or savage life no 
longer prevails, you will find a civilization which in nothing resembles our own, 
and which cannot be compared with it for a moment. In some of these states 
of civilization, you will perhaps find a certain degree of regularity and some 
marks of power, for they have endured for centuries ; but how have they en- 
dured ? Without movement, without progress ; they are devoid of life ; their 
regularity and duration are those of a marble statue, which, motionless itself, 
sees the waves of generations pass by. There have also been nations whose 
civilization displayed motion and activity; but what motion and what activity? 
Some, ruled by the mercantile spirit, never succeeded in establishing their 
internal happiness on a firm basis; their only object was to invade new countries 
which tempted their cupidity, to pour into their colonies their superabundant 
population, and establish numerous factories in new lands : others, continually 
contending and fighting for a few measures of political freedom, forgot their 
social organization, took no care of their civil liberty, and acted in the nar- 
rowest circle of time and space ; they would not be even worthy of having their 
names preserved for posterity, if the genius of the beautiful had not shone there 
with indescribable charm, and if the monuments of their knowledge, like a 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



117 



mirror, had not preserved the bright rays of Eastern learning : others, great 
and terrible, it is true, but troubled by intestine dissensions, bear inscribed upon 
their front the formidable destiny of conquest; this destiny they fulfilled by 
subjugating the world, and immediately their rapid and inevitable ruin ap- 
proached : others, in fine, excited by violent fanaticism, raged like the waves of 
ocean in a storm ; they threw themselves upon other nations like a devastating 
torrent, and threatened to involve Christian civilization itself in their deafening 
uproar ; but their efforts were vain ; their waves broke against insurmountable 
barriers j they repeated their attempts, but, always compelled to retire, they fell 
back again, and spread themselves on the beach with a sullen roar : and now 
look at the Eastern nations; behold them like an impure pool, which the heat 
of the sun is about to dry up ; see the sons and successors of Mahomet and 
Omar on their knees at the feet of the European powers, begging a protection, 
which policy sometimes affords them, but only with disdain. Such is the pic- 
ture presented to us by every civilization, ancient and modern, except that of 
Europe, that is, the Christian. It alone at once embraces every thing great and 
noble in the others ; it alone survives the most thorough revolutions ; it alone 
extends itself to all races and climates, and accommodates itself to forms of 
government the most various ; it alone, in fine, unites itself with all kinds of 
institutions, whenever, by circulating in them its fertile sap, it can produce its 
sweet and salutary fruits for the good of humanity. And whence comes the 
immense superiority of European civilization over all others ? How has it be- 
come so noble, so rich, so varied, so fruitful ; with the stamp of dignity, of 
nobility, and of loftiness ; without castes, without slaves, without eunuchs, with- 
out any of those miseries which prey upon other ancient and modern nations ? 
It often happens that we Europeans complain and lament more than the most 
unfortunate portion of the human race ever did ; and we forget that we are the 
privileged children of Providence, and that our evils, our share of the unavoid- 
able patrimony of humanity, are very slight, are nothing in comparison with 
those which have been, and still are, suffered by other nations. Even the extent 
of our good fortune itself renders us difficult to please, and exceedingly fasti- 
dious. We are like a man of high rank, accustomed to live respected and 
esteemed in the midst of ease and pleasure, who is indignant at a slighting word, 
is filled with disquietude and affliction at the most trifling contradiction, and 
forgets the multitude of men who are plunged in misery, whose nakedness is 
covered with a few rags, and who meet with a thousand insults and refusals be- 
fore they can obtain a morsel of bread to satisfy the cravings of hunger. 

The mind, when contemplating European civilization, experiences so many 
different impressions, is attracted by so many objects that at the same time 
claim its attention and preference, that, charmed by the magnificent spectacle, 
it is dazzled, and knows not where to commence the examination. The best 
way in such a case is to simplify, to decompose the complex object, and reduce 
it to its simplest elements. The individual, the family, and society; these we 
have thoroughly to examine, and these ought to be the subjects of our inqui- 
ries. If we succeed in fully understanding these three elements, as they really 
are in themselves, and apart from the slight variations which do not affect their 
essence, European civilization, with all its riches and all its secrets, will be 
presented to our view, like a fertile and beautiful landscape lit up by the morn- 
ing sun. 

European civilization is in possession of the principal truths with respect to 
the individual, to the family, and to society ; it is to this that it owes all that 
it is and all that it has. Nowhere have the true nature, the true relations and 
object of these three things been better understood than in Europe; with respect 
to them we have ideas, sentiments, and views which have been wanting in other 
civilizations. Now, these ideas and feelings, strongly marked on the face of 



118 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



European nations, have inoculated their laws, manners, institutions, customs, 
and language ; they are inhaled with the air, for they have impregnated the 
whole atmosphere with their vivifying aroma. To what is this owing ? To the 
fact, that Europe, for many centuries, has had within its bosom a powerful prin- 
ciple which preserves, propagates, and fructifies the truth j and it was especially 
in those times of difficulty, when the disorganized society had to assume a new 
form, that this regenerating principle had the greatest influence and ascendency. 
Time has passed away, great changes have taken place, Catholicity has under- 
gone vast vicissitudes in its power and influence on society; but civilization, its 
work, was too strong to be easily destroyed ; the impulse which had been given 
to Europe was too powerful and well secured to be easily diverted from its 
course. Europe was like a young man gifted with a strong constitution, and 
full of health and vigor; the excesses of labor or of dissipation reduce him 
and make him grow pale ; but soon the hue of health returns to his counte- 
nance, and his limbs recover their suppleness and vigor. 



CHAPTER XXL 

OF THE INDIVIDUAL OF THE FEELING OF INDIVIDUAL INDEPENDENCE 

ACCORDING TO M. GUIZOT. 

The individual is the first and simplest element of society. If the indivi- 
dual is not well constituted, if he is ill understood and ill appreciated, there 
will always be an obstacle to the progress of real civilization. First of all, we 
must observe, that we speak here only of the individual, of man as he is in 
himself, apart from the numerous relations which surround him when we come 
to consider him as a member of society. But let it not be imagined from this, 
that I wish to consider him in a state of absolute isolation, to carry him to the 
desert, to reduce him to the savage state, and analyze the individuality as it 
appears to us in a few wandering hordes, a monstrous exception, which is only 
the result of the degradation of our nature. Equally useless would it be to 
revive the theory of Rousseau, that pure Utopianism which can only lead to 
error and extravagance. We may separately examine the pieces of a machine, 
for the better understanding of its particular construction ; but we must take 
care not to forget the purpose for which they are intended, and not lose sight 
of the whole, of which they form a part. Without that, the judgment we 
should form of them would certainly be erroneous. The most wonderful and 
sublime picture would be only a ridiculous monstrosity, if its groups and figures 
were considered in a state of isolation from its other parts ; in this way, the 
prodigies of Michael Angelo and Raffael might be taken for the dreams of a 
madman. Man is not alone in the world, nor is he born to live alone. Besides 
what is he in himself, he is a part of the great scheme of the Universe. Be- 
sides the destiny which belongs to him in the vast plan of creation, he is raised, 
by the bounty of his Maker, to another sphere, above all earthly thoughts. 
G-ood philosophy requires that we should forget nothing of all this. It now 
remains for us to consider the individual and individuality. 

In considering man, we may abstract from his quality of citizen, — an abstrac- 
tion which, far from leading to any extravagant paradoxes, is likely to make us 
thoroughly understand a remarkable peculiarity of European civilization, one 
of the distinctive characteristics, which will be alone sufficient to enable us to 
avoid confounding it with others. All will readily understand that there is a 
distinction to be made between the man and the citizen, and that these two 
aspects lead to very different considerations ; but it is more difficult to say how 
far the limits of this distinction should extend ; to what extent the feeling of 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



119 



independence should be admitted ; what is the sphere which ought to be assigned 
to purely individual development ; in fine, whatever is peculiar to our civiliza- 
tion on this point. We must justly estimate the difference which we find herein 
between our state of society and that of others ; we must point out its source, 
and its result ; we must carefully weigh its real influence on the advance of 
civilization. This task is difficult ; I repeat it, — for we have here various ques- 
tions, great and important, it is true, but delicate and profound, and very easily 
mistaken, — it is not without much trouble that we can fix our eyes with cer- 
tainty on these vague, indeterminate, and floating objects, which are connected 
together by no perceptible ties. 

We here meet with the famous personal independence, which, according to 
M. Guizot, was brought by the barbarians from the North, and played so im- 
portant a part, that we ought to look upon it as one of the chief and most pro- 
ductive principles of European civilization. This celebrated publicist, analyzing 
the elements of this civilization, and pointing out the share which the Roman 
empire and the Church had therein, in his opinion, finds a remarkable principle 
of productiveness in the feeling of individuality, which the G-ermans brought 
with them, and inoculated into the manners of Europe. It will not be useless 
to discuss the opinion of M. Guizot on this important and delicate matter. By 
thus explaining the state of the question, we shall remove the important errors 
of some persons, errors produced by the authority of this writer, whose talent 
and eloquence have unfortunately given plausibility and semblance of truth to 
what is in reality only a paradox. The first care we ought to take, in combat- 
ing the opinions of this writer, is not to attribute to him what he has not really 
said j besides, as the matter we are treating of is liable to many mistakes, we 
shall do well to transcribe the words of M. Guizot at length. " What we require 
to know," he says, " is the general condition of society among the barbarians. 
Now it is very difficult, now-a-days, to give an account of it. We can under- 
stand, without too much trouble, the municipal system of Rome, and the Chris- 
tian Church ; their influence has continued down to our times ; we find traces 
of them in many institutions and existing facts. We have a thousand means 
of recognising and explaining them. The manners, the social condition of the 
barbarians, have entirely perished j we are compelled to divine them, by the 
most ancient historical documents, or by an effort of imagination. " 

What has been preserved to us of the manners of the barbarians is, indeed, 
little ; this is an assertion which I will not deny. I will not dispute with M. 
Guizot about the authority which ought to belong to facts which require to be 
filled up by an effort of the imagination, and which compel us to have recourse 
to the dangerous expedient of divining. As for the rest, I am aware of the 
nature of these questions ; and the reflections which I have just made, as well 
as the terms which I have used, prove that I do not think it possible to proceed 
with rule and compass in such an examination. Nevertheless, I have thought 
it proper to warn the reader on this point, and combat the delusion into which 
he might be led by a doctrine which, when fully examined, is, I repeat it, only 
a brilliant paradox. "There is a feeling, a fact," continues M. Guizot, "which 
it is above all necessary to understand well, in order to represent to ourselves 
with truth what a barbarian was : this is, the pleasure of individual independ- 
ence — the pleasure of playing amicl the chances of the world and of life, with 
power and liberty; the joys of activity without labor; the taste for an adven- 
turous destiny, full of surprises, vicissitudes, and perils. Such was the ruling 
feeling of the barbarian state, the moral necessity which put these masses of 
men in motion. To-day, in the regular society in which we live, it is difficult 
to represent to one's self this feeling, with all the influence which it exercised 
over the barbarians of the fourth and fifth centuries. There is only one work, 
in my opinion, in which this character' of barbarism is described with all its 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



force, viz. The History of the Conquest of England by the Normans, of M. 
Thierry — the only book where the motives, the inclinations, the impulses which 
actuate man in a social state bordering on barbarism, are felt and described with 
a truth really Homeric. Nowhere do we see so clearly what a barbarian was, 
and what was his life. We also find something of this, although in a very in- 
ferior degree, in my opinion, in a manner much less simple, much less true, in 
the romances of Mr. Cooper on the American savages. There is in the life of 
the savages of America, in the relations and feelings which exist in those forests, 
something which reminds one, to a certain extent, of the manners of the ancient 
Germans. No doubt these pictures are a little ideal, a little poetical ; the un- 
favorable side of barbarian life and manners is not displayed in all its crudity. 
I do not speak merely of the evils which these manners produce in the indivi- 
dual social condition of the barbarian himself. In this passionate love of per- 
sonal independence, there was something more rude and coarse than one would 
imagine from the work of M. Thierry ; there was a degree of brutality, of indo- 
lence, of apathy, which is not always faithfully described in his pictures. 
Nevertheless, when one examines the thing to the bottom, in spite of brutality, 
coarseness, and this stupid egotism, the taste for individual independence is a 
noble moral feeling, which draws its power from the moral nature of man : it is 
the pleasure of feeling himself a man — the sentiment of personality, of spon- 
taneous action in his free development. Gentlemen, it was by the German 
barbarians that this feeling was introduced into the civilization of Europe j it 
was unknown to the Roman world, unknown to the Christian Church, unknown 
to almost all the ancient civilizations : — when you find liberty in the ancient 
civilizations, it is political liberty, the liberty of the citizen. It is not with his 
personal liberty that the man is prepossessed, but with his liberty as a citizen. 
He belongs to an association — he is devoted to an association — he is ready to 
sacrifice himself for an association. It was the same with the Christian Church : 
there prevailed a feeling of great attachment to the Christian corporation — of 
devotion to its laws — a strong desire of extending its empire ; the religious feel- 
ing produced a reaction on the man himself — on his soul — an internal struggle 
to subdue his own will, and make it submit to the demands of his faith. But 
the feeling of personal independence, the taste for liberty showing itself at any 
hazard, with hardly any other object than its own satisfaction — this feeling, I 
repeat, was unknown to the Roman and Christian society. It was brought in 
by the barbarians, and placed in the cradle of modern civilization. It has 
played so great a part, it has produced such noble results, that it is impossible 
not to bring it to light as one of the fundamental elements thereof." (Histoire 
Generate de la Civilisation en Europe, legon 2.) This feeling of personal inde- 
pendence, exclusively attributed to a nation — this vague, undefinable feeling — 
a singular mixture of nobleness and brutality, of barbarism and civilization — is 
in some degree poetical, and is very likely to seduce the fancy; but, unfortu- 
nately, there is in the contrast, intended to increase the effect of the picture, 
something extraordinary, I will even say contradictory, which excites the suspi- 
cion of cool reason that there is some hidden error which compels it to be on its 
guard. If it be true that this phenomenon ever existed, what was its origin ? 
Will it be said that it was the result of climate ? But how can it be imagined 
that the snows of the north protected what was not found in the ardent south ? 
How comes it that the feeling of personal independence was wanting precisely 
in those southern countries of Europe, where the feeling of political independ- 
ence was developed with so much force ? and would it not be a strange thing, 
not to say an absurdity, if these different climates had divided these two kinds 
of liberty between them, like an inheritance ? It will be said, perhaps, that 
this feeling arose from the social state. But in that case, it cannot be made 
the characteristic mark of one nation : it must be said, in general terms, that 



PROTESTANTISM CO MP ABED WITH CATHOLICITY. 121 

4 

the feeling belonged to all the nations who were in the same social condition as 
the Germans. Besides, even according to this hypothesis, how could that which 
was peculiar to barbarism have been a germ, a fruitful principle of civilization ? 
This feeling, which must have been effaced by civilization, could not even pre- 
serve itself in the midst thereof, much less contribute to its development. If 
its perpetuation in some form was absolutely necessary, why did not the same 
thing take place in the bosom of other civilizations ? Surely the Germans were 
not the only people who passed from barbarism to civilization. But I do not 
pretend to say that the barbarians of the north did not present some remarkable 
peculiarity in this point of view ; and I do not deny that we find in European 
civilization a feeling of personality, if I may so speak, unknown to other civili- 
zations. But what I venture to affirm is, that it is little philosophical to have 
recourse to mysteries and enigmas to explain the individuality of the Germans, 
and that it is useless to seek in their barbarism the cause of the superiority 
which European civilization possesses in this respect. To form a clear idea of 
this question, which is as complicated as it is important, it is first of all neces- 
sary to specify, in the best way we can, the real nature of the barbarian indivi- 
duality. In a pamphlet which I published some time ago, called Observations 
Sociales, Politiques, et Economiques, sur les Biens du Chrge, I have incidentally 
touched upon this individuality, and attempted to give clear ideas on this point. 
As I have not changed my opinion since that time, but, on the contrary, as it 
has been confirmed, I will transcribe what I then said, as follows : "What was 
this feeling ? Was it peculiar to those nations ? Was it the result of the influ- 
ence of climate, of a social position ? Was it perchance a feeling formed in all 
places and at all times, but which is here modified by particular circumstances ? 
What was its force, its tendency ? How far was it just or unjust, noble or 
degrading, profitable or injurious? What benefits did it confer on society; 
what evils ? How were these evils combated, by whom, by what means, and 
with what result ? These questions are numerous, but they are not so compli- 
cated as they appear at first sight ; when once the fundamental idea shall be 
cleared up, the others will be understood without difficulty, and the theory, 
when simplified, will immediately be confirmed and supported by history. There 
is a strong, active, an indestructible feeling in the human heart which urges 
men to self-preservation, to avoid evils, and to attain to their well-being and 
happiness. Whether you call it self-love, instinct of preservation, desire of 
happiness or of perfection, egotism, individuality, or whatever name you give 
to it, this feeling exists ; we have it within us. We cannot doubt of its exist- 
ence ; it accompanies us at every step, in all our actions, from the time when 
we first see the light till we descend into the tomb. This feeling, if you will 
observe its origin, its nature, and its object, is nothing but a great law of all 
beings applied to man ; a law which, being a guarantee for the preservation and 
perfecting of individuals, admirably contributes to the harmony of the universe. 
It is clear that such a feeling must naturally incline us to hate oppression, and 
to suffer with impatience what tends to limit and fetter the use of our faculties. 
The cause is easily found ; all this gives us uneasiness, to which our nature is 
repugnant ) even the tenderest infant bears with impatience the tie that fastens 
him in his cradle ; he is uneasy, he is disturbed, he cries. 

" On the other hand, the individual, when he is not totally devoid of know- 
ledge of himself, when his intellectual faculties are at all developed, will feel 
another sentiment arise in his mind which has nothing in common with the 
instinct of self-preservation with which all beings are animated, a sentiment 
which belongs exclusively to intelligence ; I mean, the feeling of dignity, of 
value of ourselves, of that fire which, enkindled in our hearts in our earliest 
years, is nourished, extended, and supported by the aliment afforded to it by 
time, and acquires that immense power, that expansion which makes us so rest- 

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122 PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 

less, active, and agitated during all periods of our life. The subjection of one 
man to another wounds this feeling of dignity; for even supposing it to be 
reconciled with all possible freedom and mildness, with the most perfect respect 
for the person subjected, this subjection reveals a weakness or a necessity which 
compels him in some degree to limit the free use of his faculties. Such is the 
second origin of the feeling of personal independence. It follows from what I 
have just said, that man always bears within himself a certain love of inde- 
pendence, that this feeling is necessarily common to all times and countries, for 
we have found its roots in the two most natural feelings of man — viz. the desire 
of well-being and the consciousness of his own dignity. It is evident that these 
feelings may be modified and varied indefinitely, on account of the infinity of 
situations in which the individual may be placed, morally and physically. With- 
out leaving the sphere which is marked out for them by their very essence, these 
feelings may vary as to strength or weakness on the most extensive scale; they 
may be moral or immoral, just or unjust, noble or vile, advantageous or inju- 
rious. Consequently they may contribute to the individual the greatest variety 
of inclinations, of habits, of manners ; and thereby give very different features 
to the physiognomy of nations, according to the particular and characteristic 
manner in which they affect the individual. These notions being once cleared 
up by a real knowledge of the constitution of the heart of man, we see how all 
questions which relate to the feeling of individuality must be resolved; we also 
see that it is useless to have recourse to mysterious language or poetical expla- 
nations, for in all this there is nothing that can be submitted to a rigorous 
analysis. The ideas which man forms of his own well-being and dignity, the 
means which he employs to promote the one and preserve the other, these are 
what will settle the degrees of energy, will determine the nature and signalize 
the tendency of all these feelings ; that is to say, all will depend on the phy- 
sical and moral state of society and the individual. Now, supposing all other 
circumstances to be equal, give a man true ideas of his own well-being and 
dignity, such as reason and above all the Christian religion teach, and you will 
form a good citizen ; give false, exaggerated, absurd ideas, such as are enter- 
tained by perverted schools and promulgated by agitators at all times and in 
all countries, and you spread the fruitful seeds of disturbance and disorder. 

" In order to complete the clearing up of the important point which we have 
undertaken to explain, we must apply this doctrine to the particular fact which 
now occupies us. If we fix our attention on the nations who invaded and over- 
turned the Roman empire, confining ourselves to the facts which history has 
preserved of them, to the conjectures which are authorized by the circumstances 
in which they were placed, and to the general data which modern science has 
been able to collect from the immediate observation of the different tribes 
of America, we shall be able to form an idea of what was the state of society 
and of the individual among the invading barbarians. In their native countries, 
among their mountains, in their forests covered with frost and snow, they had 
their family ties, their relationships, their religion, traditions, customs, manners, 
attachment to their hereditary soil, their love of national independence, their 
enthusiasm for the great deeds of their ancestors, and for the glory acquired in 
battle ; in fine, their desire of perpetuating in their children a race strong, 
valiant, and free; they had their distinctions of family, their division into 
tribes, their priests, chiefs, and government. Without discussing the character 
of their forms of government, and laying aside all that might be said of their 
monarchy, their public assemblies, and other similar points, questions which are 
foreign to our subject, and which besides are always in some degree hypothetical 
and imaginary, I shall content myself with making a remark which none of my 
readers will deny, viz. that among them the organization of society was such as 
might have been expected from rude and superstitious ideas, gross habits, and 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



123 



ferocious manners ; that is to say, that their social condition did not rise above 
the level which had naturally been marked out for it by two imperious necessi- 
ties : first, that complete anarchy should not prevail in their forests ; and second, 
that in war they should have some one to lead their confused hordes. Born in 
rigorous climates, crowding on each other by their rapid increase, and on that 
account obtaining with difficulty even the means of subsistence, these nations 
saw before their eyes the abundance and the luxuries of ample and well-culti- 
vated regions ; they were at the same time urged on by extreme want, and 
strongly excited by the presence of plunder. There was nothing to oppose them 
but the feeble legions of an effeminate and decaying civilization ; their own 
bodies were strong, their minds full of courage and audacity ; their numbers 
augmented their boldness ) they left their native soil without pain ; a spirit of 
adventure and enterprise developed itself in their minds, and they threw them- 
selves on the Empire like a torrent which falls from the mountains, and inun- 
dates the neighboring plains. However imperfect was their social condition, 
and however rude were its ties, it sufficed, nevertheless, in their native soil, and 
amid their ancient manners ; if the barbarians had remained in their forests, it 
may be said that that form of government, which answered its purpose in its 
way, would have been perpetuated ; for it was born of necessity, it was adapted 
to circumstances, it was rooted in their habits, sanctioned by time, and connected 
with traditions and recollections of every kind. But these ties were too weak 
to be transported without being broken. These forms of government were, as 
we have just seen, so suited to the state of barbarism, and consequently so circum- 
scribed and limited, that they could not be applied without difficulty to the new 
situation in which these nations found themselves almost suddenly placed. Let 
us imagine these savage children of the forest precipitated on the south ; their 
fierce chiefs precede them, and they are followed by crowds of women and chil- 
dren j they take with them their flocks and rude baggage ; they cut to pieces 
numerous legions on their way; they form intrenchments, cross ditches, scale 
ramparts, ravage the country, destroy forests, burn populous cities, and take 
with them immense numbers of slaves captured on the way. They overturn 
every thing that opposes their fury, and drive before them multitudes who flee 
to avoid fire and sword. In a short time see these same men, elated with victory, 
enriched by immense booty, inured by so many battles, fires, sackings, and mas- 
sacres, transported, as if by enchantment, into a new climate, under another 
sky, and swimming in abundance, in pleasure, in new enjoyments of every kind. 
A confused mixture of idolatry and Christianity, of truth and falsehood, is 
become their religion j their principal chiefs are dead in battle ; families are 
confounded in disorder, races mixed, old manners and customs altered and lost. 
These nations, in fine, are spread over immense countries, in the midst of other 
nations, differing in language, ideas, manners, and usages ; imagine, if you can, 
this disorder, this confusion, this chaos, and tell me whether the ties which 
formed the society of these nations are not destroyed and broken into a thou- 
sand pieces, and whether you do not see barbarian and civilized society disappear 
together, and all antiquity vanish without any thing new taking its place ? And 
at this moment, fix your eyes upon the gloomy child of the North, when he 
feels all the ties that bound him to society suddenly loosened, when all the 
chains that restrained his ferocity break ; when he finds himself alone, isolated, 
in a position so new, so singular, so extraordinary, with an obscure recollection 
of his late country and without affection for that which he has just occupied ; 
without respect for law, fear of man, or attachment to custom. Do you not see 
him, in his impetuous ferocity, indulge without limit his habits of violence, 
wandering, plunder, and massacre ? He confides in his strong arm and activity 
of foot, and led by a heart full of fire and courage, by an imagination excited 
by the view of so many different countries and by the hazards of so many travels 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



and combats, he rashly undertakes all enterprises, rejects all subjection, throws 
off all restraint, and delights in the dangers of fresh struggles and adventures. 
Do you not find here the mysterious individuality, the feeling of personal inde- 
pendence, in all its philosophical reality and all the truth which is assigned to 
it by history ? This brutal individuality, this fierce feeling of independence, 
which was not reconcileable with the well-being or with the true dignity of the 
individual, contained a principle of eternal war and a continually wandering 
mode of life, and must necessarily produce the degradation of man and the 
complete dissolution of society. Far from containing the germ of civilization, 
it was this that was best adapted to reduce Europe to the savage state ; it stifled 
society in its cradle ; it destroyed every attempt made to reorganize it, and com- 
pleted the annihilation of all that remained of the ancient civilization." 

The observations which have just been made may be more or less well founded, 
more or less happy, but at least they do not present the inexplicable incon- 
sistency, not to say contradiction, of allying barbarism and brutality with civili- 
zation and refinement; they do not give the name of an eminent and fruitful 
principle of European civilization to that which a little further on is pointed 
out as one of the strongest obstacles to the progress of social organization. As 
M. Guizot, on this last point, agrees with the opinion which I have just stated, 
and shows the incoherence of his own doctrines, the reader will allow me to 
quote his own words. " It is clear," he says, " that if men have no ideas 
extending beyond their own existence, if their intellectual horizon is limited to 
themselves, if they give themselves up to the caprices of their own passions and 
wills, if they have not among them a certain number of common notions and 
feelings, around which they rally j it is clear, I say, that no society can be pos- 
sible among them ; that such individual, when he enters into any association, 
will be a principle of disturbance and dissolution. Whenever individuality 
almost absolutely prevails, or man only considers himself, or his ideas do not 
extend beyond himself, or he obeys only his own passions, society, I mean one 
with any thing of extent or permanency, becomes 1 almost impossible. Now 
such was the moral condition of the conquerors of Europe at the period of which 
we speak. I have pointed out, in the last lecture, that we owe the energetic 
feeling of individual liberty and humanity to the Germans. Now, in a state 
of extreme rudeness and ignorance, this feeling is egotism in all its brutality, 
in all its unsociability. From the fifth to the eighth century, such was the case 
among the Germans. They consulted only their own interests, their own pas- 
sions, their own wills j how could this accord with the social state ? It was 
attempted to make them enter it ; they attempted it themselves \ they soon left 
it from some sudden act, some sally of passion or misunderstanding. Every 
moment we see society attempted to be formed ; every moment we see it broken 
by the act of man, by the want of the moral conditions necessary for its sub- 
sistence. Such, gentlemen, were the two prevailing causes of the state of bar- 
barism. As long as they lasted, barbarism continued." (Histoire Generate de 
la Civilisation en Europe, lecon 3.) 

With respect to his theory of individuality, M. Guizot has met with the com- 
mon fate of men of great talents. They are forcibly struck by a singular phe- 
nomenon, they conceive an ardent desire of finding its cause, and they fall into 
frequent errors, led away by a secret tendency always to point out a new, unex- 
pected, astonishing origin. In his vast and penetrating view of European civi- 
lization, in his parallel between this and the most distinguished ones of antiquity, 
he discovered a very remarkable difference between the individuals of the former 
and of the latter. He saw in the man of modern Europe, something nobler, 
more independent than in the Greek or Roman ; it was necessary to point out 
the origin of this difference. Now this was not an easy task, considering the 
peculiar situation in which the philosophical historian found himself. From 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



125 



the first glance which he took at the elements of European civilization, the 
Church presented herself to him as one of the most powerful and the most influ- 
ential agents on the organization of society; and he saw issue from her the 
impulse which was most capable of leading the world to a great and happy 
future. He had already expressly acknowledged this, and had paid homage to 
the truth in magnificent language \ in order to explain this phenomenon, should 
he again have recourse to Christianity, to the Church ? This would have been 
conceding to her the whole of the great work of civilization ; and M. Guizot 
was desirous, at all hazards, of giving her coadjutors. Therefore, fixing his 
eyes upon the barbarian hordes, he expects to discover in the swarthy brows, 
the savage countenances, and the menacing looks of these children of the forest, 
a type, somewhat rude but still very just, of the noble independence, the eleva- 
tion, and dignity which the European bears in his features. 

After having explained the mysterious personality of the Germans, and 
shown that, far from being an element of civilization, it was a source of disorder 
and barbarism ; it is besides necessary to examine the difference which exists 
between the civilization of Europe and other civilizations, with respect to the 
feeling of dignity ; it is necessary to determine with precision what modifica- 
tions have been undergone by a feeling, which, considered by itself, is, as we 
have seen, common to all men. In the first place, there is no foundation for 
this assertion of M. Guizot, that the feeling of personal independence, the taste 
for liberty, displaying itself at all hazards, with scarcely any other object than 
its own satisfaction, was unknown to Roman society. It is clear that in such a 
comparison, it is not meant to allude to the feeling of independence in the savage 
state, in the state of barbarism; for as well might it be said that civilized 
nations could not have the distinctive character of barbarism. But laying aside 
that circumstance of ferocity, we will say that the feeling was very active, not 
only among the Romans, but also among the other most celebrated nations of 
antiquity. " "When you find in ancient civilization/' says M. Guizot, " liberty, 
it is political liberty, the liberty of the citizen. It is not with his personal 
liberty that the man is prepossessed, it is with his liberty as a citizen ; he be- 
longs to an association, he is devoted to an association, he is ready to sacrifice 
himself for an association." I will not deny that this spirit of sacrifice for the 
benefit of an association did exist among ancient nations ; I acknowledge also 
that it was accompanied by remarkable peculiarities, which I intend to explain 
further on ; yet it may be doubted whether the taste for liberty, with scarcely 
any other object than its own satisfaction, was not more active with ancient 
nations than with us. Indeed, what was the object of the Phoenicians, the 
Greeks of the Archipelago and of Asia Minor, the Carthaginians, when they 
undertook those voyages which, for such remote times, were as bold and perilous 
as those of our most intrepid sailors ? Was it, indeed, to sacrifice themselves 
for an association that they sought new territories with so much ardour, in order 
to amass there money, gold, and all kinds of articles of value ? Were they 
not led by the desire of acquiring to gratify themselves ? Where, then, is the 
association ? Where do you find it here ? Do you see any thing but the indi- 
vidual, with his passions and tastes, and his ardour in satisfying them ? And 
the Greeks — those Greeks so enervated, so voluptuous, so spoiled by pleasures, 
had they not the most lively feeling of personal independence, the most ardent 
desire of living with perfect freedom, with no other object but to gratify them- 
selves ? Their poets singing of nectar and of love ; their free courtesans receiv- 
ing the homage of the most illustrious citizens, and making sages forget their 
philosophical moderation and gravity ; and the people celebrating their festivals 
amid the most fearful dissoluteness ; did they also only sacrifice on the altars 
of association? Had they not the desire of gratifying themselves? With 
respect to the Romans, perhaps it would not be so easy to demonstrate this, if 

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126 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



we had to speak of what are called the glorious times of the Republic ; but we 
have to deal with the Romans of the empire, with those who lived at the time 
of the irruption of the barbarians ; with those Romans, greedy of pleasures, and 
devoured by that thirst for excess of which history has preserved such shame- 
ful pictures. Their superb palaces, their magnificent villas, their delicious 
baths, their splendid festive halls, their tables loaded with riches, their effemi- 
nate dresses, their voluptuous dissipation ; do they not show us individuals 
who, without thinking of the association to which they belonged, only thought 
of gratifying their own passions and caprices; lived in the greatest luxury, 
with every delicacy and all imaginable splendour; had no care but to enjoy 
society, to lull themselves asleep in pleasure, to gratify all their passions, and 
give way to a burning love of their own satisfactions and amusements ? 

It is not easy, then, to imagine why M. Guizot exclusively attributes to the 
barbarians the pleasure of feeling themselves men, the feeling of personality, of 
human spontaneousness in its free development. Can we believe that such sen- 
timents were unknown to the victors of Marathon and Plataea, to those nations 
who have immortalized their names by so many monuments ? When, in the 
fine arts, in the sciences, in eloquence, in poetry, the noblest traits of genius 
shone forth on all sides, had they not among them the pleasure of feeling them- 
selves men, the feeling and the power of the free development of all their 
faculties ? and in a society where glory was so passionately loved, as we see it 
was among the Romans, in a society which shows us men like Cicero and Virgil, 
and which produced a Tacitus, who still, after nineteen centuries, makes every 
generous heart thrill with emotion, ivas there no pleasure in feeling themselves 
men, no pride in appreciating their own dignify ? Was there no feeling of the 
spontaneousness of man in his own free development ? How can we imagine 
that the barbarians of the north surpassed the Greeks and Romans in this 
respect ? Why, then, these paradoxes, this confusion of ideas ? Of what avail 
are these brilliant expressions meaning nothing ? Of what use are these ob- 
servations, of a false delicacy, where the mind at first sight discovers vagueness 
and inexactitude ; and where it finds, after a complete examination, nothing 
but incoherency and revery ? 



CHAPTER XXII. 

HOW THE INDIVIDUAL WAS ABSORBED BY ANCIENT SOCIETY. 

If we profoundly study this question, without suffering ourselves to be led 
into error and extravagance, by the desire of passing for deep observers ; if we 
call to our aid a just and cool philosophy, supported by the facts of history, we 
shall see that the principal difference between the ancient civilizations and our 
own with respect to the individual is, that, in antiquity, man, considered as 
man, was not properly esteemed. Ancient nations did not want either the feel- 
ing of personal independence, or the pleasure of feeling themselves men ; the 
fault was not in the heart, but in the head. What they wanted was the com- 
prehension of the dignity of man ; the high idea which Christianity has given us 
of ourselves, while, at the same time, with admirable wisdom, it has shown us 
our infirmities. What ancient societies wanted, what all those, where Chris- 
tianity does not prevail, have wanted, and will continue to want, is the respect 
and the consideration which surround every individual, every man, inasmuch as 
he is a man. Among the Greeks the Greeks are every thing ; strangers, bar- 
barians, are nothing : in Rome, the title of Roman citizen makes the man ; he 
who wants this is nothing. In Christian countries, the infant who is born 
deformed, or deprived of some member, excites compassion, and becomes an 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



127 



object of the tenderest solicitude ; it is enough that he is man, and unfortunate. 
Among the ancients, this human being was regarded as useless and contempti- 
ble j in certain cities, as for example at Lacedaemon, it was forbidden to nourish 
him, and, by command of the magistrates charged with the regulation of births, 
horrible to relate ! he was thrown into a ditch. He was a human being ; but 
what matter ? He was a human being who would be of no use ; and society, 
without compassion, did not wish to undertake the charge of his support. If 
i you read Plato and Aristotle, you will see the horrible doctrine which they pro- 
fessed on the subject of abortion and infanticide; you will see the means which 
these philosophers imagined, in order to prevent the excess of population ; and 
you will be sensible of the immense progress which society has made, under 
the influence of Christianity, in all that relates to man. Are not the public 
games, those horrible scenes where hundreds of men were slaughtered to amuse 
an inhuman multitude, an eloquent testimony to the little value attached to 
man, when he was sacrificed with so much barbarism for reasons so frivolous ? 

The right of the strongest was exercised among the ancients in a horrible 
manner ; and this is one of the causes to which must be attributed the state 
of annihilation, so to speak, in which we see the individual with respect to 
society. Society was strong, the individual was weak; society absorbed the 
individual, and arrogated to itself all imaginable rights over him ; and if ever 
he made opposition to society, he was sure to be crushed by it with an iron 
hand. When we read the explanation which M. Gruizot gives us of this pecu- 
liarity of ancient civilizations, we might suppose that there existed among them 
a patriotism unknown to us ; a patriotism which, carried to exaggeration, and 
stripped of the feeling of personal independence, produced a kind of annihila- 
tion of the individual in presence of society. If he had reflected deeply on 
the matter, M. Gruizot would have seen that the difference is not in the feelings 
of antiquity, but in the immense fundamental revolution which has taken place 
in ideas j hence he would easily have concluded, that the difference observed 
in their feelings must have been owing to the differences in the ideas them- 
selves. Indeed, it is not strange that the individual, seeing the little esteem 
in which he was held, and the unlimited power which society arrogated to itself 
over his independence and his life, (for it went so far as to grind him to 
powder, when he opposed it,) on his side formed an exaggerated idea of society 
and the public authority, so as to annihilate himself in his own heart before 
this fearful colossus. Far from considering himself as a member of an associa- 
tion the object of which was the safety and happiness of every individual, the 
benefits of which required from him some sacrifices in return, he regarded him- 
self as a thing devoted to this association, and compelled, without hesitation, 
to offer himself as a holocaust on its altars. Such is the condition of man ; 
when a power acts upon him, for a long time, unlimitedly, his indignation is 
excited against it, and he rejects it with violence; or else he humbles, he 
debases, he annihilates himself before the strong influence which binds and 
prostrates him. Let us see if this be not the contrast which ancient societies 
constantly afford us ; the blindest submission and annihilation on the one hand, 
and, on the other, the spirit of insubordination, of resistance, showing itself 
in terrible explosions. It is thus, and thus only, that it is possible to under- 
stand how societies, whose normal condition was confusion and agitation, pre- 
sent us with such astonishing examples as Leonidas with his three hundred 
Spartans perishing at Thermopylae, Ssevola thrusting his hand into the fire, 
Regulus returning to Carthage to suffer and die, and Marcus Curtius, all armed, 
leaping into the chasm which had opened in the midst of Rome. All these 
phenomena, which at first sight appear inexplicable, are explained when we 
compare them with what has taken place in the revolutions of modern times. 
Terrible revolutions have thrown some nations into confusion ; the struggle ot 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



ideas and interests, inflaming their passions, has made them forget their true 
social relations, during intervals of greater or less duration. What has hap- 
pened ? At the same time that unlimited freedom was proclaimed, and the 
rights of individuals were incessantly extolled, there arose in the midst of 
society a cruel power, which, concentrating in its own hands all public author- 
ity, inflicted on them the severest blows. At such periods, when the formida- 
ble maxim of the ancients, the salus populi, that pretext for so many frightful 
attempts was in full force, there arose, on the other hand, that mad and ferocious « 
patriotism which superficial men admire in the citizens of ancient republics. 

Some writers have lavished eulogiums on the ancients, and, above all, on the 
Romans. It seemed as if, to gratify their ardent wishes, modern civilization 
must be moulded according to the ancient. They made absurd attempts ; they 
attacked the existing social system with unexampled violence; they labored 
to destroy, or at least to stifle, Christian ideas concerning the individual and 
society, and they sought their inspiration from the shades of the ancient Ro- 
mans. It is remarkable that, during the short time that the attempt lasted, 
there were seen, as in ancient Rome, admirable traits of strength, of valor, 
of patriotism, in fearful contrast with cruelties and crimes without example. 
In the midst of a great and generous nation there appeared again, to affright 
the human race, the bloody spectres of Marius and Sylla; so true it is that 
man is everywhere the same, and that the same order of ideas in the end pro- 
duces the same order of events. Let the Christian ideas disappear, let old 
ones regain their force, and you will see that the modern world will resemble 
the ancient one. Happily for humanity, this is impossible. All the attempts 
hitherto made to produce such a result have been necessarily of short continu- 
ance, and such will be the case in future. But the bloody page which these 
criminal attempts have left in history offers an abundant subject for reflection 
to the philosopher who desires to become thoroughly acquainted with the inti- 
mate and delicate relations between ideas and facts. There he will see fully 
exhibited the vast scheme of social organization, and he will be able to appre- 
ciate at its just value the beneficial or injurious influence of the various reli- 
gious and the different philosophical systems. 

The periods of revolutions, that is to say, those stormy times when govern- 
ments are swallowed up one after another like edifices built upon a volcanic 
soil, have all this distinctive character, the tyranny of the interests of public 
authority over private interests. Never is this power feebler, or less lasting; but 
never is it more violent, more mad. Every thing is sacrificed to its safety or 
its vengeance ; the shade of its enemies pursues it and makes it continually 
tremble ; its own conscience torments it and leaves it no repose ; the weakness 
of its organization, its instable position, warn it at every step of its approach- 
ing fall, and in its impotent despair it makes the convulsive efforts of one dying 
in agony. What, then, in its eyes are the lives of citizens, if they excite the 
slightest, the most remote suspicion ? If the blood of thousands of victims could 
procure for it a moment of security, and add a few days to its existence, " Perish 
my enemies," it says ; " this is required for the safety of the state, that is, for 
mine !" Why this frenzy, this cruelty ? It is because the ancient govern- 
ment, having been overturned by force, and the new having been enthroned 
in the same way, the idea of right has disappeared from the sphere of power. 
Legitimacy does not protect it, even its novelty betrays its little value ; every 
thing forebodes its short existence. Stripped of the reason and justice which 
it is obliged to invoke in its own support, it seeks for both in the very necessity 
of power, a social necessity, which is always visible, and it proclaims that the 
safety of the people is the supreme care. Then the property and lives of indi- 
viduals are nothing j they are annihilated in the presence of the bloody spectre 
which arises in the midst of society; armed with force, and surrounded by 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



129 



guards and scaffolds, it says, et I am the public power ; to me is confided the 
safety of the people; it is I who watch over the interests of society." 

Now, do you know what is the result of this absolute want of respect for the 
individual, of this complete annihilation of man in presence of the alarming power 
which claims to represent society ? It is that the feeling of association reap- 
pears in different directions ; no longer a feeling directed by reason, foresight, and 
beneficence, but a blind, instinctive feeling, which urges man not to remain alone, 
without defence, in the midst of a society which is converted into a field of bat- 
tle and a vast conspiracy; men then unite either to sustain power, when, influ- 
enced by the whirlwind of revolution, they are identified with it, and regard it 
as their only rampart, or to overturn it, if, some motive having urged them into 
the opposite ranks, they see their most terrible enemy in the existing power, 
and a sword continually suspended over their heads. These men belong to an 
association, are devoted to an association, are ready to sacrifice themselves for 
it, for they cannot live alone ; they know, they comprehend, at ' least instinct- 
ively, that the individual is nothing ; for as the restraints that maintain social 
order have been broken, the individual no longer has a tranquil sphere where 
he can live in peace and independence, confident that a power founded on legi- 
timacy and guided by reason and justice watches over the preservation of public 
order and the respect due to individual rights. Then timid men are alarmed 
and humbled, and begin to represent that first scene of servitude where the 
oppressed is seen to kiss the hand of the oppressor, and the victim to reverence 
the executioner. Daring men resist and contend, or rather, conspiring in the dark, 
they prepare terrible explosions. No one then belongs to himself ; the indivi- 
dual is absorbed on all sides, either by the force which oppresses or by that 
which conspires. The tutelary divinity of individuals is justice; when justice 
vanishes, they are no more than imperceptible grains of dust carried away by 
the wind, or drops of water in the stormy waves of ocean. Imagine to your- 
self societies where this passing frenzy does not prevail, it is true, but which are 
yet devoid of true ideas on the rights and duties of individuals, and of those 
of public authority; societies where there are some wandering, uncertain, 
obscure, imperfect notions thereon, stifled by a thousand prejudices and errors ; 
societies under which, nevertheless, public authority is organized under one 
form or another, and has become consolidated, thanks to the force of habit, and 
the absence of all other government better calculated to satisfy urgent necessi- 
ties ; you will then have an idea of the ancient societies, we should rather say, 
societies without Christianity, and you will understand the annihilation of the 
individual before the force of public power, either under an Asiatic despotism 
or the turbulent democracy of the ancient republics. And what you will then 
see will be precisely what you have observed in modern societies at times of 
revolution, only with this difference, that in these the evil is transitory and 
noisy, like the ravages of the tempest, while among the ancients it was the nor- 
mal state, like the vitiated atmosphere which injures and corrupts all that 
breathe it. 

Let us examine the cause of these two opposite phenomena, the lofty patriot- 
ism of the Greeks and Romans, and the state of prostration and political degra- 
dation in which other nations lay, and in which those still lie who are not under 
the influence of Christianity; what is the cause of this individual abnegation 
which is found at the bottom of two feelings so contrary ? and why do we not 
find among any of those nations that individual development which is observed 
in Europe, and which with us is connected with a reasonable patriotism, from 
which the feeling of a legitimate personal independence is not excluded ? It 
is because in antiquity man did not know himself, or what he was; it is 
because his true relations with society were viewed through a thousand preju- 
dices and errors, and consequently were very ill understood. This will show 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



that admiration for the patriotism, disinterestedness, and heroic self-denial of 
the ancients has been sometimes carried too far, and that these qualities, far 
from revealing in the men of antiquity a greater perfection of the individual, a 
superior elevation of mind to that of the men of modern times, rather indicate 
ideas less elevated and feelings less independent than our own. Perhaps some 
blind admirers of the ancients will be astonished at these assertions. Let them 
consider the women of India throwing themselves on the funeral-pile after the 
death of their husbands, and slaves putting themselves to death because they 
could not survive their masters, and they will see that personal self-denial is 
not an infallible sign of elevation of mind. Sometimes man does not under- 
stand his own dignity ; he considers himself devoted to another being, absorbed 
by him, and then he regards his own existence only as a secondary thing, which 
has no object but to minister to the existence of another. We do not wish to 
underrate the merit which rightly belongs to the ancients j we do not wish to 
lower their heroism, as far as it is just and laudable, any more than we wish to 
attribute to the moderns an egotistical individuality, which prevents their sacri- 
ficing themselves for their country : our only object is to assign to every thing 
its place, by dissipating prejudices which are excusable up to a certain point, 
but do lamentable mischief by falsifying the principal features of ancient and 
modern history. 

This annihilation of the individual among the ancients arose also from the 
weakness and imperfection of his moral development, and from his want of a 
rule for his own guidance, which compelled society to interfere in all that con- 
cerned him, as if public reason was called upon to supply the defect of private 
reason. If we pay attention, we shall observe that in countries where political 
liberty was the most cherished, civil liberty was almost unknown. While the 
citizens flattered themselves that they were very free, because they took part in 
the public deliberations, they wanted that liberty which is most important 
to man, that which we now call civil liberty. We may form an idea of the 
thoughts and manners of the ancients on this point, by reading one of their 
most celebrated writers, Aristotle. In the eyes of this philosopher, the only 
title which renders a man worthy of the name of citizen, seems to be the parti- 
cipation in the government of the republic ; and these ideas, apparently very 
•democratic and calculated to extend the rights of the most numerous class, far 
from proceeding, as one would suppose, from an exaggeration of the dignity of 
man, was connected in his mind with a profound contempt for man himself. 
His system was to reserve all honor and consideration for a very limited num- 
ber; the classes of citizens who were thus condemned to degradation and nullity 
were all laborers, artisans, and tradesmen. (Pol. 1. vii. c. 9, 12; 1. viii. c. 1, 2; 
1. iii. c. 1.) This theory supposed, as may be seen, very curious ideas on indi- 
viduals and society, and is an additional confirmation of what I have said 
respecting the eccentricities, not to say monstrosities, which we see in the 
ancient republics. Let us never forget that one of the principal causes of the 
evil was the want of an intimate knowledge of man ; it was the little value 
which was placed upon his dignity as man ; the individual, deprived of guides 
to direct him, could not conciliate esteem ; in a word, there was wanting the 
light of Christianity, which was alone capable of illuminating the chaos. 

The feeling of the dignity of man is deeply engraven on the heart of modern 
society; we find everywhere, written in striking characters, this truth, that 
man, by virtue of his title of man, is respectable and worthy of high conside- 
ration; hence it is that all the schools of modern times that have foolishly 
undertaken to exalt the individual, at the imminent risk of producing fearful 
perturbations in society, have adopted as the constant theme of their instruc- 
tions, this dignity and nobility of man. They thus distinguish themselves in 
the most decided manner from the democrats of antiquity; the latter acted in 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



131 



a narrow sphere, without departing from a certain order of things, without look- 
ing beyond the limits of their own country ; in the spirit of modern democrats, 
on the contrary, we find a tendency to invade all branches, an ardent propa- 
gandise! which embraces the whole world. They never invoke mean ideas; 
man, his reason, his imprescriptible rights, these are their perpetual theme. 
Ask them what is their design, and they will tell you that they desire to level 
all things, to avenge the sacred cause of humanity. This exaggeration of ideas, 
the pretext and motive for so many crimes, shows us a valuable fact, viz. the 
immense progress which Christianity has given to ideas with relation to the 
dignity of our nature. When they have to mislead societies which owe their 
civilization to Christianity, they find no better means than to invoke the dignity 
of human nature. The Christian religion, the enemy of all that is criminal, 
could not consent to see society overturned, under the pretence of defending 
and raising the dignity of man ; this is the reason why a great number of the 
most ardent democrats have indulged in insults and sarcasms against religion. 
On the other hand, as history loudly proclaims that all our knowledge and feel- 
ing of what is true, just, and reasonable on this point, is due to the Christian 
religion, it has been recently attempted to make a monstrous alliance between 
Christian ideas and the most extravagant of democratic theories. A celebrated 
man has undertaken this enterprise ; but true Christianity, that is, Catholicity, 
rejects these adulterous alliances; it ceases to acknowledge its most eminent 
apologists when they have quitted the path of eternal truth. De Lamennais 
now wanders in the darkness of error, embracing a deceitful shadow of Chris- 
tianity ; and the voice of the supreme Pastor of the Church has warned the 
faithful against being dazzled by the illusion of a name illustrious by so many 
titles. (16) 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE PROGRESS OF INDIVIDUALITY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CATHOLICITY. 

If we give a just and legitimate meaning to the word individuality, taking 
the feeling of personal independence in an acceptation which is not repugnant 
to the perfection of the individual, and does not oppose the constitutive princi- 
ples of all society ; moreover, if we seek the various causes which have influ- 
enced the development of this feeling, without speaking of that which we have 
already pointed out as one of the most important, viz. the true notion of man, 
and his connections with his fellows, we shall find many of them which are 
quite worthy of attention in Catholicity. M. Guizot was greatly deceived 
when, putting the faithful of the Church in the same rank with the ancient 
Romans, he asserted that both were equally wanting in the feeling of personal 
independence. He describes the faithful as absorbed by the association of the 
Church, entirely devoted to her, ready to sacrifice themselves for her ; so that, 
according to him, it was the interests of the association which induced them to 
act. There is an error here ; but as this error has originated in a truth, it is 
our duty to distinguish the ideas and the facts with much attention. 

There is no doubt that from the cradle of Christianity the faithful have had 
an extreme attachment to the Church, and it was always well understood among 
them, that they could not leave the communion of the Church without ceasing 
to be numbered among the true disciples of Jesus Christ. It is equally unde- 
niable that, in the words of M. G-uizot, " There prevailed in the Christian 
Church a feeling of strong attachment to the Christian corporation, of devotion 
to its laws, and an ardent desire to extend its empire f but it is not true that 
the origin and source of all these feelings was the spirit of association alone, to 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the exclusion of all development of real individuality. The Christian belonged 
to an association, but that association was regarded by him as a means of obtain- 
ing eternal happiness, as the ship in which he was embarked, amid the tempests 
of the world, to arrive safe in the port of eternity : and although he believed 
it impossible to be saved out of the Church, he did not understand from that 
that he was devoted to the Church, but to God. The Roman was ready to 
sacrifice himself for his country; the Christian, for his faith. When the Roman 
died, he died for his country ; the faithful did not die for the Church, but for 
God. If we open the monuments of Church history, and read the acts of the 
martyrs, we shall then see what passed in that terrible moment, when the Chris- 
tian, fully arousing himself, showed in the presence of the instruments of tor- 
ture, burning piles, and the most horrible punishments, the true principle which 
acted on his mind. The judge asks his name; he declares it, and adds, " I am 
a Christian." He is asked to sacrifice to the gods. "We only sacrifice to one 
God, the Creator of heaven and earth/' He is reproached with the disgrace 
of following a man who has been nailed to the cross j for him the ignominy of 
the cross is a glory, and he loudly proclaims that the Crucified is his Saviour 
and his God. He is threatened with tortures ; he despises them, for they are 
passing, and rejoices in being able to suffer something for his Master. The 
cross of punishment is already prepared, the pile is lighted before his eyes, the 
executioner raises the fatal axe to strike off his head ; what does it matter to 
him ? all this is but for a moment, and after that moment comes a new life of 
ineffable and endless happiness. We thus see what influenced his heart; it 
was the love of his God and the interest of his eternal happiness. Conse- 
quently, it is utterly false that the Christian, like men of the ancient republics, 
destroyed his individuality in the association to which he belonged, allowing 
himself to be absorbed in that association like a drop of water in the immensity 
of ocean. The Christian belonged to an association which gave him the rule 
of his faith and conduct ; he regarded that association as founded and directed 
by God himself ; but his mind and his heart were raised to God, and when fol- 
lowing the voice of the Church, he believed that he was engaged with his own 
individual affair, which was nothing less than his eternal happiness. This dis- 
tinction is quite necessary in an affair which has relations so various and deli- 
cate that the slightest confusion may produce considerable errors. Here a 
hidden fact reveals itself to us, which is infinitely precious, and throws much 
light upon the development and perfecting of the individual in Christian civili- 
zation. It is absolutely necessary that there should be a social order to which 
the individual must submit; but it is also proper that he should not be absorbed 
by society to such an extent that he cannot be conceived but as forming part 
of it, and remains deprived of his own sphere of action. If this were the case, 
never would true civilization be completely developed; as it consists in the 
simultaneous perfecting of the individual and of society, it is necessary, for its 
existence, that both should have a well determined sphere, where their peculiar 
and respective movements may not check and embarrass each other. 

After these reflections, to which I especially call the attention of all thinking 
men, I will point out a thing which has, perhaps, not yet been remarked ; it is, 
that Christianity has eminently contributed to create that individual sphere in 
which man, without breaking the ties which connect him with society, is free 
to develop all his peculiar faculties. From the mouth of an Apostle went forth 
that generous expression which strictly limits political power : " We ought to 
obey God rather than man." (Acts v. 29.) " Obedire oportet Deo magis quam 
honiinibus." The Apostle thereby proclaims that the individual should cease 
to acknowledge power, when power exacts from him what he believes to be con- 
trary to his conscience. It was among Christians that this great example was 
witnessed for the first time ; individuals of all countries, of all ages, of both 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



133 



sexes, of all conditions, braving the anger of authority, and all the fury of 
popular passions, rather than pronounce a single word contrary to the principles 
which they professed in the sanctuary of conscience ; and this, not with arms 
in their hands, in the midst of popular commotions, where their impetuous 
passions are excited, which communicate to the mind temporary energy, but in 
the solitude and obscurity of dungeons, amid the fearful calmness of the tribu- 
nals, that is, in that situation where man, alone and isolated, cannot show force 
and dignity without revealing the elevation of his ideas, the nobleness of his 
feelings, the unalterable firmness of his conscience, and the greatness of his 
soul. Christianity engraved this truth deeply on the heart of man, that indi- 
viduals have duties to perform, even when the whole world is aroused against 
them ) that they have an immense destiny to fulfil, and that it is entirely their 
own affair, the responsibility of which rests upon their own free will. This 
important truth, unceasingly inculcated by Christianity at all times, to both 
sexes, to all conditions, must have powerfully contributed to excite in man an 
active and ardent feeling of personality. This feeling, with all its sublimity, 
combining with the other inspirations of Christianity, all full of dignity and 
grandeur, has raised the human mind from the dust, where ignorance and rude 
superstitions, and systems of violence, which oppressed it on all sides, had 
placed and retained it. How strange and surprising to the ears of Pagans must 
have been those energetic words of Justin, which nevertheless expressed the 
disposition of mind of the majority of the faithful, when, in his Apology, 
addressed to Antoninus Pius, he said, " As we have not placed our hopes on 
present things, we contemn those who kill us, death being, moreover, a thing 
which cannot be avoided." 

This full and entire self-consciousness, this heroic contempt of death, this 
calm spirit of a man who, supported by the testimony of intimate feeling, sets 
at defiance all the powers of earth, must have tended the more to enlarge the 
mind, as they did not emanate from that cold stoical impassibility, the constant 
effort of which was to struggle against the nature of things without any solid 
motive. The Christian feeling had its origin in a sublime freedom from all 
that is earthly, in a profound conviction of the holiness of duty, and in that 
undeniable maxim, that man, in spite of all the obstacles which the world places 
in his way, should walk with a firm step towards the destiny which is marked 
out for him by his Creator. These ideas and feelings together communicated 
to the soul a strong and vigorous temper, which, without reaching in any thing 
the savage harshness of the ancients, raised man to all his dignity, nobleness, 
and grandeur. It must be observed that these precious effects were not confined 
to a small number of privileged individuals, but that, in conformity with the 
genius of the Christian religion, they extended to all classes; for one of the 
noblest characters of that divine religion is the unlimited expansion which it 
gives to all that is good ; it knows no distinction of persons, and makes its voice 
penetrate the obscurest places of society. It was not only to the elevated 
classes and philosophers, but to the generality of the faithful, that St. Cyprian, 
the light of Africa, addressed himself, when, summing up in a few words all 
the grandeur of man, he marked with a bold hand the sublime position where 
our soul ought to maintain itself with constancy. " Never," he says, " never 
will he who feels himself to be the child of God admire the words of man. He 
falls from his noblest state who can admire any thing but God." (De Spectaculis.) 
Sublime words, which make us boldly raise our heads, and fill our hearts with 
noble feelings ; words which, diffusing themselves over all classes, like a ferti- 
lizing warmth, were capable of inspiring the humblest of men with what pre- 
viously seemed exclusively reserved for the transports of the poet : 

Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri 
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere cultus. 
M 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



The development of the moral life, the interior life, that life in which man, 
reflecting on himself, is accustomed to render a circumstantial account of all his 
actions, of the motives which actuate him, of the goodness or the wickedness of 
those motives, and the object to which they tend, is principally due to Chris- 
tianity, to its unceasing influence on man in all his conditions, in all situations, 
in all moments of his life. Such a progress of the individual life in all that it 
has most intimate, most active, and most interesting for the heart of man, was 
incompatible with that absorption of the individual by society, with that blind 
self-denial, in which man forgot himself, to think only of the association of 
which he formed a part. This moral and interior life was unknown to the 
ancients, because they wanted principles for supporting, rules for guiding, and 
inspirations for exciting and nourishing it. Thus at Rome, where the political 
element tries its ascendency over minds, when enthusiasm becomes extinguished 
by the effect of intestine dissensions, when every generous feeling becomes 
stifled by the insupportable despotism which succeeds to the last agitations of 
the republic, we see baseness and corruption develope themselves with fearful 
rapidity. The activity of mind which before occupied itself in debates of the 
Forum and the glorious exploits of war, no longer finding food, gave itself up 
to sensual pleasures with an abandonment which we can hardly imagine now-a- 
days, in spite of the looseness of morals which we so justly deplore. Thus we 
see among the ancients only these two extremes, either the most exalted patriot- 
ism, or the complete prostration of the faculties of the soul, which abandons 
itself without reserve to the dictates of its irregular passions ; there man was 
the slave either of his own passions, of another man, or of society. 

Since the moral tie which united men to Catholic society has been broken, 
since religious belief has been weakened, in consequence of the individual inde- 
pendence which Protestantism has proclaimed in religious matters, it has unhap- 
pily become possible for us to conceive, by means of examples found in Euro- 
pean civilization, what man still deprived of real knowledge of himself, his 
origin and destiny, must have been. We will indicate in another place the 
points of resemblance which are found between ancient and modern society in 
the countries where the influence of religious - ideas is enfeebled. It is enough 
now to remark, that if Europe had completely lost Christianity, according to 
the insane desires of some men, a generation would not have passed away with- 
out there being revived among us the individual and society such as they 
were among the ancients, except the modifications which the difference of the 
material state of the two civilizations would necessarily produce. 

The doctrine of free will, so loudly proclaimed by Catholicity, and sustained 
by her with such vigour, not only against the old Pagan teaching, but particu- 
larly against sectarians at all times, and especially against the founders of the 
pretended Reformation, has also contributed more than is imagined to develope 
and perfect the individual, to raise his ideas of independence, nobleness, and 
dignity. When man comes to consider himself as constrained by the irresisti- 
ble force of destiny, and attached to a chain of events over which he has no 
control — when he comes to suppose that the operations of his mind, those active 
proofs of his freedom, are but vain illusions — he soon annihilates himself; he 
feels himself assimilated to the brute ; he ceases to be the prince of living 
beings, the, ruler of the earth ; he is nothing more than a machine fixed in its 
place, which is compelled to perform its part in the great system of the uni- 
verse. The social order ceases to exist; merit and demerit, praise and blame, 
reward and punishment, are only unmeaning words. If man enjoys or suffers, 
it is only in the same way as a shrub, which is sometimes breathed upon softly 
by the zephyrs, and sometimes blasted by the north wind. How different it is 
when man is conscious of his liberty ! Then he is master of his destiny ; 
good and evil, life and death, are before his eyes ; he can choose, and nothing 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



135 



can violate the sanctuary of his conscience. There the soul is enthroned, there 
she is seated, full of dignity, and the whole world raging against her, the uni- 
verse falling upon her fragile body, cannot force her will. The moral order is 
displayed before us in all its grandeur ; we see good in all its beauty, and evil 
in all its deformity ; the desire of doing well stimulates, and the fear of doing 
ill restrains us ; the sight of the recompense which can be obtained by an effort 
of free will, and which appears at the end of the path of virtue, renders that 
path more sweet and peaceful, and communicates activity and energy to the 
soul. If man is free, there remains something great and terrible, even in his 
crime, in his punishment, and even in the despair of hell. What is man de- 
prived of liberty and yet punished ? What is the meaning of this absurd pro- 
position, a chief dogma of the founders of Protestantism ? This man is a weak 
and miserable victim, in whose torture a cruel omnipotence delights; a God 
who has created him in order to see him suffer ; a tyrant with infinite power, 
that is, the most dreadful of monsters. But if man is free, when he suffers, 
he suffers because he has deserved it ; and if we contemplate him in the midst 
of despair, plunged into an ocean of horrors, his brow furrowed by the just 
lightnings of the Eternal, we seem to hear him still pronounce those terrible 
words with a haughty bearing and proud look, non serviam, I will not obey. 

In man, as in the universe, all is wonderfully united ; all the faculties of 
man have delicate and intimate relations with each other, and the movement 
of one chord in the soul makes all the others vibrate. It is necessary to call 
attention to this reciprocal dependence of all our faculties on each other, in 
order to anticipate an objection which may be made. We shall be told, all that 
has been said only proves that Catholicity has developed the individual in a 
mystical sense. No, the observations which I have made show something 
more than this; they prove that we owe to Catholicity the clear idea and lively 
feeling of moral order in all its greatness and beauty ; they prove that we owe 
her the real strength of what we call conscience, and that if the individual 
believes himself to be called to a mighty destiny, confided to his own free will, 
and the care of which belongs entirely to him, it is to Catholicity he owes that 
belief ; they prove that Catholicity has given man the true knowledge which he 
has of himself, the appreciation of his dignity, the respect which is paid to him 
as man ; they prove that she has developed in our souls the germs of the noblest 
and most generous feelings ; for she has raised our thoughts by the loftiest con- 
ceptions, dilated our hearts by the assurance of a liberty which nothing can 
take away, by the promise of an infinite reward, eternal happiness, while she 
leaves in our hands life and death, and makes us in a certain manner the arbiters 
of our own destiny. In all this there is more than mere mysticism ; it is no- 
thing less than the development of the entire man ; nothing less than the true 7 
the only noble, just, and reasonable individuality ; nothing less than the collected 
powerful impulses which urge the individual towards perfection in every sense ; 
it is nothing less than the first, the most indispensable, the most fruitful ele- 
ment of real civilization. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

OF THE FAMILY. MONOGAMY. — INDISSOLUBILITY OF ,THE CONJUGAL TIE. 

We have seen what the individual owes to Catholicity ; let us now see what 
the family owes her. It is clear that the individual, being the first element of 
the family, if it is Catholicity which has tended to perfect him, the improve- 
ment of the family will thus have been very much her work ; but without in 
sisting on this inference, I wish to consider the conjugal tie in itself, for which 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



purpose it is necessary to call attention to woman. I will not repeat here what 
she was among the Romans, and what she is still among the nations who are 
not Christians ; history, and still more the literature of Greece and Rome, afford 
us sad or rather shameful proofs on this subject; and all the nations of the 
earth offer us too many evidences of the truth and exactness of the observa- 
tion of Buchanan, viz. that wherever Christianity does not prevail, there is 
a tendency to the degradation of woman. Perhaps on this point Protestant- 
ism will be unwilling to give way to Catholicity ; it will assert that in all that 
affects woman the Reformation has in no degree prejudiced the civilization of 
Europe. We will not now inquire what evils Protestantism has occasioned 
in this respect ; this question will be discussed in another part of the work ; 
but it cannot be doubted, that when Protestantism appeared, the Catholic religion 
had already completed its task as far as woman is concerned. No one, indeed, 
is ignorant that the respect and consideration which are given to women, and 
the influence which they exercise on society, date further back than the first 
part of the 16th century. Hence it follows that Catholicity cannot have had 
Protestantism as a coadjutor; it acted entirely alone in this point, one of the 
most important of all true civilization ; and if it is generally acknowledged that 
Christianity has placed woman in the rank which properly belongs to her, and 
which is most conducive to the good of the family and of society, this is a homage 
paid to Catholicity ; for at the time when woman was raised from abjection, 
when it was attempted to restore her to the rank of companion of man, as wor- 
thy of him, those dissenting sects that also called themselves Christians did not 
exist, and there was no other Christianity than the Catholic Church. 

It has been already remarked in the course of this work, that when I give 
titles and honours to Catholicity, I avoid having recourse to vague generalities, 
and endeavour to support my assertions by facts. The reader will naturally 
expect me to do the same here, and to point out to him what are the means 
which Catholicity has employed to give respect and dignity to woman; he shall 
not be deceived in his expectation. First, and before descending to details, we 
must observe that the grand ideas of Christianity with respect to humanity 
must have contributed, in an extraordinary manner, to the improvement of the 
lot of woman. These ideas, which applied without any difference to woman as 
well as to man, were an energetic protest against the state of degradation in 
which one-half of the human race was placed. The Christian doctrine made 
the existing prejudices against woman vanish for ever; it made her equal to 
man by unity of origin and destiny, and in the participation of the heavenly 
gifts ; it enrolled her in the universal brotherhood of man, with his fellows 
and with Jesus Christ ; it considered her as the child of God, the coheiress of 
Jesus Christ ; as the companion of man, and no longer as a slave and the vile 
instrument of pleasure. Henceforth that philosophy which had attempted to 
degrade her, was silenced; that unblushing literature which treated women 
with so much insolence found a check in the Christian precepts, and a repri- 
mand no less eloquent than severe in the dignified manner in which all the 
ecclesiastical writers, in imitation of the Scriptures, expressed themselves on 
woman. Yet, in spite of the beneficent influence which the Christian doctrines 
must have exercised by themselves, the desired end would not have been com- 
pletely attained, had not the Church undertaken, with the warmest energy, to 
accomplish a work the most necessary, the most indispensable for the good 
organization of the family and society, I mean the reformation of marriage. 
The Christian doctrine on this point is very simple : one with one exclusively, 
and for ever. But the doctrine would have been powerless, if the Church had 
not undertaken to apply it, and if she had not carried on this task with invin- 
cible firmness; for the passions, above all those of man, rebel against such a 
doctrine ; and they would undoubtedly have trodden it under foot, if they had 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



137 



not met with an insurmountable barrier, which did not leave them the most 
distant hope of triumph. Can Protestantism, which applauded with such sense- 
less joy the scandal of Henry VIII., and accommodated itself so basely to the 
desires of the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, boast of having contributed to 
strengthen that barrier ? What a surprising difference ! During many cen- 
turies, amid circumstances the most various, and sometimes the most terrible, 
the Catholic Church struggles with intrepidity against the passions of poten- 
tates, to maintain unsullied the sanctity of marriage. Neither promises nor 
threats could move Rome j no means could obtain from her any thing contrary 
to the instructions of her Divine Master : Protestantism, at the first shock, or 
rather at the first shadow of the slightest embarrassment, at the mere fear of 
displeasing a prince who certainly was not very powerful, yields, humbles itself, 
consents to polygamy, betrays its own conscience, opens a wide door to the pas- 
sions, and gives up to them the sanctity of marriage, the first pledge for the 
good of the family, the foundation-stone of true civilization. 

Protestant society on this point, wiser than the miscalled reformers who 
attempted to guide it, with admirable good sense repudiated the consequences 
of the conduct of its chiefs ; although it did not preserve the doctrines of Catho- 
licity, it at least followed the salutary impulse which it had received from them, 
and polygamy was not established in Europe. But history records facts which 
show the weakness of the pretended reformation, and the vivifying power of 
Catholicity. It tells us to whom it is owing that the law of marriage, that pal- 
ladium of society, was not falsified, perverted, destroyed, amid the barbarous 
ages, amid the most fearful corruption, violence, and ferocity, which prevailed 
everywhere, as well at the time when invading nations passed pell-mell over 
Europe, as in that of feudality, and when the power of kings had already been 
preponderant, — history will tell what tutelary force prevented the torrent of 
sensuality from overflowing with all its violence, with all its caprices, from 
bringing about the most profound disorganization, from corrupting the character 
of European civilization, and precipitating it into that fearful abyss in which 
the nations of Asia have been for so many centuries. 

Prejudiced writers have carefully searched the annals of ecclesiastical history 
for the differences between popes and kings, and have taken occasion therein to 
reproach the Court of Rome with its intolerant obstinacy respecting the sanc- 
tity of marriage ; if the spirit of party had not blinded them, they would have 
understood that, if this intolerant obstinacy had been relaxed for a moment, if 
the Roman Pontiff had given way one step before the impetuosity of the pas- 
sions, this first step once made, the descent into the abyss would have been 
rapid ; they would have admired the spirit of truth, the deep conviction, the 
lively faith with which that august see is animated; no consideration, no fear, 
has been able to silence her, when she had occasion to remind all, and espe- 
cially kings and potentates, of this commandment : " They shall be two in one 
flesh; man shall not separate what God has joined." By showing themselves 
inflexible on this point, even at the risk of the anger of kings, not only have 
the popes performed the sacred duty which was imposed on them by their 
august character as chiefs of Christianity, but they have executed a political 
chef d' oeuvre, and greatly contributed to the repose and well-being of nations. 
" For," says Voltaire, " the marriages of princes in Europe decide the destiny 
of nations ; and never has there been a court entirely devoted to debauchery, 
without producing revolutions and rebellions." (Essai sur VHistoire generate, 
t. iii. c. 101.) 

This correct remark of Voltaire will suffice to vindicate the pope, together 
with Catholicity, from the calumnies of their wretched detractors : it becomes 
still more valuable, and acquires an immense importance, if it is extended be- 
yond >he limits of the political order to the social. The imagination is affrighted 
18 m2 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



at the thought of what would have happened, if these barbarous kings, in whom 
the splendor of the purple ill disguised the sons of the forest, if those haughty 
seigneurs, fortified in their castles, clothed in mail, and surrounded by their 
timid vassals, had not found a check in the authority of the Church ; if at the 
first glance at a new beauty, if at the first passion which, when enkindled in their 
hearts, would have inspired them with a disgust for their legitimate spouses, 
they had not had the always-present recollection of an inflexible authority. 
They could, it is true, load a bishop with vexations ; they could silence him 
with threats or promises ; they might control the votes of a particular Council 
by violence, by intrigue, by subornation ; but, in the distance, the power of 
the Vatican, the shadow of the Sovereign Pontiff, appeared to them like an 
alarming vision ; they then lost all hope ; all struggles became useless ; the 
most violent endeavors would never have given them the victory ; the most 
astute intrigues, the most humble entreaties, would have obtained the same 
reply : " One with one only, and for ever." 

If we read but the history of the middle ages, of that immense scene of vio- 
lence, where the barbarian, striving to break the bonds which civilization 
attempted to impose on him, appears so vividly ; if we recollect that the Church 
was obliged to keep guard incessantly and vigilantly, not only to prevent the 
ties of a marriage from being broken, but even to preserve virgins (and even 
those who were dedicated to G-od) from violence ; we shall clearly see that, if 
she had not opposed herself, as a wall of brass, to the torrent of sensuality, the 
palaces of kings and the castles of seigneurs would have speedily become their 
seraglios and harems. What would have happened in the other classes ? 
They would have followed the same course ; and the women of Europe would 
have remained in the state of degradation in which the Mussulman women still 
are. As I have mentioned the followers of Mohammed, I will reply in passing 
to those who pretend to explain monogamy and polygamy by climate alone. 
Christians and Mohammedans have been for a long time under the same sky, 
and their religions have been established, by the vicissitudes of the two races, 
sometimes in cold and sometimes in mild and temperate climates ; and yet we 
have not seen the religions accommodate themselves to the climates ; but rather, 
the climates have been, as it were, forced to bend to the religions. European 
nations owe eternal gratitude to Catholicity, which has preserved monogamy 
for them, one of the causes which undoubtedly have contributed the most to 
the good organization of the family, and the exaltation of woman. What would 
now be the condition of Europe, what respect would woman now enjoy, if 
Luther, the founder of Protestantism, had succeeded in inspiring society with 
the indifference which he shows on this point in his commentary on Genesis ? 
" As to whether we may have several wives," says Luther, " the authority of 
the patriarchs leaves us completely free." He afterwards adds that " it is a 
thing neither permitted nor prohibited, and that he does not decide any thing 
thereupon " Unhappy Europe ! if a man, who had whole nations as followers, 
had uttered such words some centuries earlier, at the time when civilization had 
not yet received an impulse strong enough to make it take a decided line on 
the most important points, in spite of false doctrines. Unhappy Europe ! if at 
the time when Luther wrote, manners had not been already formed, if the good 
organization given to the family by Catholicity had not been too deeply rooted 
to be torn up by the hand of man. Certainly the scandal of the Landgrave 
of Hesse-Cassel would not then have remained an isolated example, and the 
culpable compliance of the Lutheran doctors would have produced bitter fruits. 
What would that vacillating faith, that uncertainty, that cowardice with which 
the Protestant Church was seen to tremble at the mere demand of such a prince 
as the Landgrave, have availed, to control the fierce impetuosity of barbarous 
and corrupted nations ? How would a struggle, lasting for ages, have been 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



139 



sustained by those who, at the first menace of battle, gave way, and were routed 
before the shock ? 

Besides monogamy, it may be said that there is nothing more important than 
the indissolubility of marriage. Those who, departing from the doctrine of the 
Church, think that it is useful in certain cases to allow divorce, so as to dis- 
solve the conjugal tie, and permit each of the parties to marry again, still will 
not deny that they regard divorce as a dangerous remedy, which the legislator 
only avails himself of with regret, and only on account of crime or faithless- 
ness j they will see, also, that a great number of divorces would produce very 
great evils, and that in order to prevent these in countries where the civil laws 
allow the abuse of divorce, it is necessary to surround this permission with all 
imaginable precaution ; they will consequently grant that the most efficacious 
manner of preventing corruption of manners, of guarantying the tranquillity 
of families, and of opposing a firm barrier to the torrent of evils which is ready 
to inundate society, is to establish the indissolubility of marriage as a moral 
principle, to base it upon motives which exercise a powerful ascendency over the 
heart, and to keep a constant restraint on the passions, to prevent them from 
slipping down so dangerous a declivity. It is clear that there is no work more 
worthy of being the object of the care and zeal of the true religion. Now, 
what religion but the Catholic has fulfilled this duty ? What other religion has 
more perfectly accomplished so salutary and difficult a task ? Certainly not 
Protestantism, for it did not even know how to penetrate the depth of the 
reasons which guided the conduct of the Church on this point. I have taken 
care to do justice in another place to the wisdom which Protestant society has 
displayed in not giving itself up entirely to the impulse which its chiefs wished 
to communicate to it. But it must not be supposed from this that Protestant 
doctrines have not had lamentable consequences in countries calling themselves 
reformed. Let us hear what a Protestant lady, Madame de Stael, says in her 
book on Germany, speaking of a country which she loves and admires : "Love," 
she says, " is a religion in Germany, but a poetical religion which tolerates very 
freely all that sensibility can excuse. It cannot be denied that in the Protest- 
ant provinces the facility of divorce is injurious to the sanctity of marriage. 
They change husbands as quietly as if they were arranging the incidents of a 
drama : the good nature of the man and woman prevents the mixture of any 
bitterness with their easy ruptures ; and as there is among the Germans more 
imagination than real passion, the most curious events take place with singular 
tranquillity. Yet it is thus that manners and characters lose all consistency; 
the paradoxical spirit destroys the most sacred institutions, and there are no 
well established rules on any subject." (De V 'Allemagne, p. 1, c. 3.) Misled 
by their hatred against the Roman Church, and excited by their rage for inno- 
vation in all things, the Protestants thought they had made a great reform in 
secularizing marriage, if I may so speak, and in rejecting the Catholic doctrine, 
which declared it a real sacrament. This is not the place to enter upon a dog- 
matical discussion of this matter ; I shall content myself with observing, that 
by depriving marriage of the august seal of a sacrament, Protestantism showed 
that it had little knowledge of the human heart. To consider marriage, not as 
a simple civil contract, but as a real sacrament, was to place it under the august 
shade of religion, and to raise it above the stormy atmosphere of the passions ; 
and who can doubt that this was absolutely necessary to restrain the most active, 
capricious, and violent passion of the heart of man ? The civil laws are insuf- 
ficient to produce such an effect. Motives are required, which, being drawn 
from a higher source, exert a more efficacious influence. The Protestant doc- 
trine overturned the power of the Church with respect to marriage, and gave 
up matters of this kind exclusively to the civil power. Some one will perhaps 
think that the increase of the secular power on this point could not but serve 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the cause of civilization, and that to drive the ecclesiastical authority from this 
ground was a magnificent triumph gained over exploded prejudices, a valuable 
victory over unjust usurpation. Deluded man ! If your mind possessed any 
lofty thought, if your heart felt the vibration of those harmonious chords which 
display the passions of man with so much delicacy and exactness, and teach the 
best means of directing them, you would see, you would feel, that to place 
marriage under the mantle of religion, and to withdraw it as much as possible 
from profane interference, was to purify, to embellish, and to surround it with 
the most enchanting beauty; for thus is that precious treasure, which is blasted 
by a look, and tarnished by the slightest breath, inviolably preserved. Would 
you not wish to have the nuptial bed veiled and strictly guarded by religion ? 



CHAPTER XXV. 

OP THE PASSION OF LOVE. 

But it will be said to Catholics, " Do you not see that your doctrines are 
too hard and rigorous ? They do not consider the weakness and inconstancy of 
the human heart, and require sacrifices above its strength. Is it not cruel to 
attempt to subject the most tender affections, the most delicate feelings, to the 
rigor of a principle ? Cruel doctrine, which endeavors to hold together, bound 
to each other by a fatal tie, those who no longer love, who feel a mutual disgust, 
who perhaps hate each other with a profound hatred ! When you answer these 
two beings who long to be separated, who would rather die than remain united, 
with an eternal Never, showing them the divine seal which was placed upon 
their union at the solemn moment, do you not forget all the rules of prudence ? 
Is not this to provoke despair ? Protestantism, accommodating itself to our 
infirmity, accedes more easily to the demands, sometimes of caprice, but often 
also of weakness; its indulgence is a thousand times preferable to your rigor." 
This requires an answer ; it is necessary to remove the delusion which produces 
these arguments, too apt, unhappily, to mislead the judgment, because they 
begin by seducing the heart. In the first place, it is an exaggeration to say 
that the Catholic system reduces unhappy couples to the extremity of despair. 
There are cases in which prudence requires that they should separate, and then 
neither the doctrines nor the practice of the Catholic Church oppose the separa- 
tion. It is true that this does not dissolve the conjugal tie, and that neither of 
the parties can marry again. But it cannot be said that one of them is subject 
to tyranny; they are not compelled to live together, consequently they do not 
suffer the intolerable torment of remaining united when they abhor each other. 
Very well, we shall be told, the separation being pronounced, the parties are 
freed from the punishment of living together ; but they cannot contract new 
ties, consequently they are forbidden to gratify another passion which, perhaps, 
their heart conceals, and which may have been the cause of the disgust or the 
hatred whence arose the unhappiness or discord of their first union. Why not 
consider the marriage as altogether dissolved ? Why should not the parties 
become entirely free ? Permit them to obey the feelings of their hearts, which, 
newly fixed on another object, already foresee happier days. Here, no doubt, 
the answer seems difficult, and the force of the difficulty becomes urgent ; but, 
nevertheless, it is here that Catholicity obtains the most signal triumph ; it is 
here it clearly shows how profound is its knowledge of the heart of man, how 
prudent its doctrines, and how wise and provident its conduct. Its rigor, which 
seems excessive, is only necessary severity; this conduct, far from meriting the 
reproach of cruelty, is a guarantee for the repose and well-being of man. But 
it is a thing which it is difficult to understand at first sight ; thus we are com- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



141 



pelled to develope this matter by entering into a profound examination of the 
principles which justify by the light of reason the conduct pursued by the 
Catholic Church; let us examine this conduct, not only in respect to marriage, 
but in all that relates to the direction of the heart of man. 

In the direction of the passions there are two systems, the one of compliance, 
the other of resistance. In the first of these they are yielded to as they advance; 
an invincible obstacle is never opposed to them ; they are never left without 
hope. A line is traced around them which, it is true, prevents them from ex- 
ceeding a certain boundary ; but they are given to understand that if they come 
to place their foot upon this limit, it will retire a little further ; so that the 
compliance is in proportion to the energy and obstinacy of their demands. In 
the second system, a line is equally marked out to the passions which they 
cannot pass ; but it is a line fixed, immovable, and everywhere guarded by a 
wall of brass. In vain do they attempt to pass it ; they have not even the 
shadow of hope ; the principle which resists them will never change, will never 
consent to any kind of compromise. Therefore, no resource remains but to take 
that course which is always open to man, that of sin. The first system allows 
the fire to break out, to prevent an explosion ; the second hinders the beginning 
of it, in the fear of being compelled to arrest its progress. In the first, the 
passions are feared and regulated at their birth, and hopes of restraining them 
when they have grown up are entertained ; in the second, it is thought that, if 
it is difficult to restrain them when they are feeble, it will be still more so when 
they are strengthened. In the one, they act on the supposition that the pas- 
sions are weakened by indulgence ; in the other, it is believed that gratification, 
far from satiating, only renders them every day more devouring. 

It may be said, generally speaking, that Catholicity follows the second of 
these systems ; that is to say, with respect to the passions, her constant rule is 
to check them at the first step, to deprive them of all hope from the first, and 
to stifle them, if possible, in their cradle. It must be observed, that we speak 
here of the severity with respect to the passions themselves, not with respect to 
man, who is their prey ; it is very consistent to give no truce to passion, and to 
be indulgent towards the person under its influence ; to be inexorable towards 
the offence, and to treat the offender with extreme mildness. With respect to 
marriage, this system has been acted on by Catholicity with astonishing firm- 
ness ; Protestantism has taken the opposite course. Both are agreed on this 
point, that divorce, followed by the dissolution of the conjugal tie, is a very 
great evil ; but there is this difference between them, that the Catholic system 
does not leave even the hope of a conjuncture in which this dissolution will be 
permitted ; it forbids it absolutely, without any restriction ; it declares it im- 
possible : the Protestant system, on the contrary, consents to it in certain cases. 
Protestantism does not possess the divine seal which guaranties the perpetuity 
of marriage, and renders it sacred and inviolable ; Catholicity does possess this 
seal, impresses it on the mysterious tie, and from that moment marriage remains 
under the shadow of an august symbol. Which of the two religions is the most 
prudent in this point ? Which acts with the most wisdom ? To answer this 
question, let us lay aside the dogmatical reasons, and the intrinsical morality of 
the human actions which form the subject of the laws which we are now exa- 
mining ; and let us see which of the two systems is the most conducive to the 
difficult task of managing and directing the passions. After having considered 
the nature of the human heart, and consulted the experience of every day, it 
may be affirmed that the best way to repress a passion is to leave it without 
hope ; to comply with it, to allow it continual indulgences, is to excite it more 
and more ; it is to play with fire amid a heap of combustibles, by allowing the 
flame to be lit, from time to time, in the vain confidence of being always able 
to put out the conflagration. Let us take a rapid glance at the most violent 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



passions of the heart of man, and observe what is their ordinary course, accord- 
ing to the system which is pursued in their regard. Look at the gambler, who 
is ruled by an indefinable restlessness, which is made up of an insatiable cupi- 
dity and an unbounded prodigality, at the same time. The most enormous for- 
tune will not satisfy him ; and yet he risks all, without hesitation, to the hazard 
of a moment. The man who still dreams of immense treasures amid the most 
fearful misery, restlessly pursues an object which resembles gold, but which is 
not it, for the possession thereof does not satisfy him. His heart can only exist 
amid uncertainty, chances, and perils. Suspended between hope and fear, he 
seems to be pleased with the rapid succession of lively emotions which unceas- 
ingly agitate and torment him. What remedy will cure this malady — this de- 
vouring fever ? Will you recommend to him a system of compliance ? will you 
tell him to gamble, but only to a certain amount, at certain times, and in cer- 
tain places ? What will you gain by this ? Nothing at all. If these means 
were good for any thing, there would be no gambler in the world who would 
not be cured of his passion ; for there is no one who has not often marked out 
for himself these limits, and often said to himself, " You shall only play till 
such an hour, in such a place, and to such an amount." What is the effect of 
these palliations — of these impotent precautions — on the unhappy gambler? 
That he miserably deceives himself. The passion consents, only in order to 
gain strength, and the better to secure the victory : thus it gains ground ; it con- 
stantly enlarges its sphere ; and leads its victim again into the same, or into 
greater excesses. Do you wish to make a radical cure ? If there be a remedy ; 
it must be to abstain completely ; a remedy which may appear difficult at first, 
but will be found the easiest in practice. When the passion finds itself de- 
prived of all hope, it will begin to diminish, and in the end will disappear. 
No man of experience will raise the least doubt as to the truth of what I have 
said ; every one will agree with me, that the only way to destroy the formidable 
passion of gambling is to deprive it at once of all food, to leave it without hope. 

Let us pass to another example, more analogous to the subject which I intend 
to explain. Let us suppose a man under the influence of love. Do you believe 
that the best way to cure his passion will be to give him opportunities, even 
though very rare, of seeing the object of his passion ? Do you think that it will 
be salutary to authorize him to continue, while you forbid him to multiply, these 
dangerous interviews ? Will such a precaution quench the flame which bums 
in his heart ? You may be sure that it will not. The limits will even aug- 
ment its force. If you allow it any food, even with the most parsimonious hand, 
if you permit it the least success, you see it constantly increase, until it upset 
every thing that opposes it. But take away all hope, send the lover on a long 
journey, or place before him an impediment which precludes the probability, or 
even the possibility, of success ; then, except in very rare cases, you will obtain 
at first distraction, and then forgetfulness. Is not this the daily teaching of 
experience ? Is it not the remedy which necessity every day suggests to the 
fathers of families ? The passions resemble fire. They are extinguished by a 
large quantity of water ) but a few drops only render them more ardent. Let 
us raise our thoughts still higher ) let us observe the passions acting in a wider 
field, in more extended regions. Whence comes it that so many strong pas- 
sions are awakened at times of public disturbance ? It is, because then they 
all hope to be gratified ; it is, because the highest ranks, the oldest and most 
powerful institutions, having been overturned, and replaced by others, which 
were hitherto imperceptible, all the passions see a road open before them, amid 
the tempest and confusion ; the barriers apparently insurmountable, the sight of 
which prevented their existence, or strangled them in the cradle, do not exist ; 
as all is then unprotected and defenceless, it is only required to have boldness 
and intrepidity enough to stand amid the ruins of all that was old. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



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Regarding things in the abstract, there is nothing more strikingly absurd 
than hereditary monarchy, the succession secured to a family which may at any 
time place on the throne a child, a fool, or a wretch : and yet in practice there 
is nothing more wise, prudent, and provident. This has been taught by the 
long experience of ages, it has been shown by reason, and proved by the sad 
warnings of those nations who have tried elective monarchy. Now, what is the 
cause of this ? It is what we are endeavoring to explain. Hereditary monar- 
chy precludes all the hopes of irregular ambition ; without that, society always 
contains a germ of trouble, a principle of revolt, which is nourished by those 
who conceive a hope of one day obtaining the command. In quiet times, and 
under an hereditary monarchy, a subject, however rich, however distinguished 
he may be for his talent or his valour, cannot, without madness, hope to be 
king ; and such a thought never enters his head. But change the circumstances, 
— admit, I will not say, the probability, but the possibility of such an event, 
and you will see that there will immediately be ardent candidates. 

It would be easy to develope this doctrine more at length, and apply it to all 
the passions of man ; but enough has been said to show that the first thing to 
be done when you have to subdue a passion, is to oppose to it an insurmountable 
barrier, which it can have no hope of passing. Then the passion rages for a 
little time, it rebels against the obstacle that resists it ; but when it finds that 
to be immovable, it recedes, it is cast down, and, like the waves of the sea, it 
falls back murmuring to the level which has been marked out for it. 

There is a passion in the heart of man, a passion which exerts a powerful 
influence on the destinies of his life, and too often, by its deceitful illusions, 
forms a long chain of sadness and misfortune. This passion, which has for its 
necessary object the preservation of the human race, is found, in some form, in 
all the beings of nature ; but, inasmuch as it resides in the soul of an intelli- 
gent being, it assumes a peculiar character in man. In brutes, it is only an 
instinct, limited to the preservation of the species ; in man, the instinct becomes 
a passion; and that passion, enlivened by the fire of imagination, rendered subtile 
by the powers of the mind, inconstant and capricious, because it is guided by a 
free will, which can indulge in as many whims as there are different impressions 
for the senses and the heart, is changed into a vague, fickle feeling, which is 
never contented, and which nothing can satisfy. Sometimes it is the restless- 
ness of a man in a fever ; sometimes the frenzy of a madman ; sometimes a 
dream, which ravishes the soul into regions of bliss; sometimes the anguish 
and the convulsions of agony. Who can describe the variety of forms under 
which this deceitful passion presents itself ? Who can tell the number of snares 
which it lays for the steps of unhappy mortals ? Observe it at its birth, follow 
it in its career, up to the moment when it dies out like an expiring lamp. 
Hardty has the down appeared on the face of man, when there arises in his 
heart a mysterious feeling, which fills him with trouble and uneasiness, without 
his being aware of the cause. A pleasing melancholy glides into his heart, 
thoughts before unknown enter his mind, seductive images pervade his imagi- 
nation, a secret attraction acts on his soul, unusual gravity appears in his 
features, all his inclinations take a new direction. The games of childhood no 
longer please him ; every thing shows a new life, less innocent, less tranquil ; 
the tempest does not yet rage, the sky is not darkened, but clouds, tinged with 
fire, are the sad presage of what is to come. When he becomes adolescent, that 
which was hitherto a feeling, vague, mysterious, incomprehensible, even to him- 
self, becomes, from that time, more decided; objects are seen more clearly, they 
appear in their real nature ; the passion sees, and seizes on them. But do not 
imagine that it becomes more constant on that account. It is as vain, as 
changeable, as capricious as the multitude of objects which by turns present 
themselves to it. It is constantly deluded, it pursues fleeting shadows, seeks a 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



satisfaction which it never finds, and awaits a happiness which it never attains. 
With an excited imagination, a burning heart, with his whole soul transported, 
and all his faculties subdued, the ardent young man is surrounded by a brilliant 
chain of illusions ; he communicates these to all that environs him ; he gives 
greater splendor to the light of heaven, he clothes the earth with richer ver- 
dure and more brilliant coloring, he sheds on all the reflection of his own en- 
chantment. 

In manhood, when the thoughts are more grave and fixed, when the heart is 
more constant, the will more firm, and resolutions more lasting ; when the con- 
duct which governs the destinies of life is subjected to rule, and, as it were, 
confirmed in its faith, this mysterious passion continues to agitate the heart of 
man, and it torments him with unceasing disquietude. We only observe that 
the passion is become stronger and more energetic, owing to the development 
of the physical organization j the pride which inspires man with independence 
of life, the feeling of greater strength, and the abundance of new powers, render 
him more decided, bold, and violent ; while the warnings and lessons of expe- 
rience have made him more provident and crafty. We no longer see the candor 
of his earlier years. He now knows how to calculate ; he is able to approach 
his object by covert ways, and to choose the surest means. Woe to the man 
who does not provide in time against such an enemy ! His existence will be 
consumed by a fever of agitation ; amid disquietudes and torments, if he does 
not die in the flower of his age, he will grow old still ruled by this fatal pas- 
sion ; it will accompany him to the tomb, surrounding him, in his last days, 
with those repulsive and hideous forms which are exhibited in a countenance 
furrowed by years, and in eyes which are already veiled by the shades of 
death. 

What plan should be adopted to restrain this passion, to confine it within just 
limits, and prevent its bringing misfortune to individuals, disorder to families, 
and confusion to society ? The invariable rule of Catholicity, in the morality 
which she teaches, as well as in the institutions which she establishes, is repres- 
sion; Catholicism does not allow a desire she declares to be culpable in the eyes of 
God ; even a look, when accompanied by an impure thought. Why this severity ? 
For two reasons ; on account of the intrinsic morality which there is in this 
prohibition ; and also, because there is profound wisdom in stifling the evil at 
its birth. It is certainly easier to prevent a man's consenting to evil desires, 
than it is to hinder his gratifying them when he has allowed them to enter his 
inflamed heart. There is profound reason in securing tranquillity to the soul, 
by not allowing it to remain, like Tantalus, with the water at his burning lips. 
" Quid vis videre, quod non licet habere V } Why do you wish to see that which 
you are forbidden to possess ? is the wise observation of the author of the admi- 
rable Imitation of Christ ; thus summing up, in a few words, all the prudence 
which is contained in the holy severity of the Christian doctrine. 

The ties of marriage, by assigning a legitimate object to the passions, still do 
not dry up the source of agitation and the capricious restlessness which the 
heart conceals. Possession cloys and disgusts, beauty fades and decays, the 
illusions vanish, and the charms disappear ; man, in the presence of a reality 
which is far from reaching the beauty of the dreams inspired by his ardent 
imagination, feels new desires arise in his heart; tired with what he possesses, 
he entertains new illusions ; he seeks elsewhere the ideal happiness which he 
thought he had found, and quits the unpleasing reality which thus deceives his 
brightest hopes. 

Give, then, the reins to the passions of man ; allow him in any way to enter- 
tain the illusion that he can make himself any new ties ; permit him to believe 
that he is not attached for ever, and without recall, to the companion of his life; 
and you will see that disgust will soon take possession of him, that discord will 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



145 



be more violent and striking, that the ties will begin to wear out before they 
are contracted, and will break at the first shock. Proclaim, on the contrary, a 
law which makes no exception of poor or rich, weak or powerful, vassals or 
kings, which makes no allowance for difference of situation, of character, health, 
or any of those numberless motives which, in the hands of passions, and espe- 
cially those of powerful men, are easily changed into pretexts ; proclaim that 
this law is from heaven, show a divine seal on the marriage tie, tell the mur- 
muring passions that if they will gratify themselves they must do so by immo- 
rality ; tell them that the power which is charged with the preservation of this 
divine law will never make criminal compliances, that it will never dispense 
with the infraction of the divine law, and that the crime will never be without 
remorse; you will then see the passions become calm and resigned; the law 
will be diffused and strengthened, will take root in customs; you will have 
secured the good order and tranquillity of families for ever, and society will be 
indebted to you for an immense benefit. Now this is exactly what Catholicity 
has done, by efforts which lasted for ages ; it is what Protestantism would have 
destroyed, if Europe had generally followed its doctrine and example, if the 
people had not been wiser than their deceitful guides. 

Protestants and false philosophers, examining the doctrines and institutions 
of the Catholic Church through their prejudices and animosity, have not under- 
stood the admirable power of the two characteristics impressed at all times and 
in all places on the ideas and works of Catholicity, viz. unity and fixity; unity 
in doctrines, and fixity in conduct. Catholicity points out an object, and wishes 
us to pursue it straight forward. It is a reproach to philosophers and Protest- 
ants, that after having declaimed against unity of doctrine, they also declaimed 
against fixity of conduct. If they had reflected on man, they would have un- 
derstood that this fixity is the secret of guiding and ruling him, and, when desi- 
rable of restraining his passions, of exalting his mind when necessary, and of ren- 
dering him capable of great sacrifices and heroic actions. There is nothing worse 
for man than uncertainty and indecision ; nothing that weakens and tends more to 
make him useless. Indecision is to the will what skepticism is to the mind. 
Give a man a definite object, and if he will devote himself to it, he will attain it. 
Let him hesitate between two different ways, without a fixed rule to guide his con- 
duct ; let him be ignorant of his intention ; let him not know whither he is going, 
and you will see his energy relax, his strength diminish, and he will stop. Do 
you know by what secret great minds govern the world ? Do you know what ren- 
ders them capable of heroic actions ? And how all those who surround them are 
rendered so? It is that they have a fixed object, both for themselves and for 
others ; it is that they see that object clearly, desire it ardently, strive after it 
directly, with firm hope and lively faith, without allowing any hesitation in them- 
selves or in others. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, and the other heroes of ancient 
and modern times, no doubt exercised a fascinating influence by the ascendency 
of their genius ; but the secret of this ascendency, the secret of their power, and 
of that force of impulse by which they surmounted all, was the unity of thought, 
the fixity of plan, which produced in them that invincible, irresistible character 
which gave them an immense superiority over other men. Thus Alexander 
passed the Grranicus, undertook and completed his wonderful conquest of Asia; 
thus Caesar passed the Rubicon, put Pompey to flight, triumphed at Pharsalia, 
and made himself master of the world ; thus did Napoleon disperse those who 
parleyed about the fate of France, conquered his enemies at Marengo, obtained 
the crown of Charlemagne, alarmed and astonished the world by the victories 
of Austerlitz and J ena. 

Without unity there is no order, without fixity there is no stability; and in 
the moral as in the physical world, without order and stability nothing prospers. 
Protestantism , which has pretended to advance the individual and society by 
19 N 



146 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



destroying religious unity, has introduced into creeds and institutions the mul- 
tiplicity and fickleness of private judgment ; it has everywhere spread confusion 
and disorder, and has altered the nature of European civilization by inoculating 
it with a disastrous principle which has caused and will continue to cause lament- 
able evils. And let it not be supposed, that Catholicity, on account of the 
unity of her doctrines and the fixity of her conduct, is opposed to the progress 
of ages. There is nothing to prevent that which is one from advancing, and 
there may be movement in a system which has some fixed points. The uni- 
verse whose grandeur astonishes us, whose prodigies fill us with admiration, 
whose beauty and variety enchant us, is united, is ruled by laws constant and 
fixed. Behold some of the reasons which justify the strictness of Catholicity, 
behold why she has not been able to comply with the demands of a passion 
which, once let loose, has no boundary or barrier, introduces trouble into hearts, 
disorder into families, takes away the dignity of manners, dishonors the modesty 
of women, and lowers them from the noble rank of the companions of men. I 
do not deny that Catholicity is strict on this point ; but she could not give up 
this strictness without renouncing at the same time the sublime functions of the 
depository of sound morality, the vigilant sentinel which guards the destinies 
of humanity. (17) 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

VIRGINITY IN ITS SOCIAL ASPECT. 

We have seen, in the fifteenth chapter, with what jealousy Catholicity endea- 
vors to veil the secrets of modesty ; with what perseverance she imposes the 
restraint of morality on the most impetuous passion of the human heart. She 
shows us all the importance which belongs to the contrary virtue, by crowning 
with peerless splendor the total abstinence from sensual pleasure, viz. virginity. 
Frivolous minds, and principally those who are inspired by a voluptuous heart, 
do not understand how much Catholicity has thus contributed to the elevation of 
woman ; but such will not be the case with reflecting men who are capable of seeing 
that all that tends to raise to the highest degree of delicacy the feeling of modesty, 
all that fortifies morality, all that contributes to make a considerable number of 
women models of the most heroic virtue, equally tends to place women above 
the atmosphere of gross passion. Woman then ceases to be presented to the 
eyes of man as the mere instrument of pleasure ; none of the attractions with 
which nature has endowed her are lost or diminished, and she has no longer to 
dread becoming an object of contempt and disgust, after having been the un- 
happy victim of profligacy. 

The Catholic Church is profoundly acquainted with these truths \ and while 
she watched over the sanctity of the conjugal tie, while she created in the bosom 
of the family this admirable dignity of the matron, she covered with a myste- 
rious veil the countenance of the Christian virgin, and she carefully guarded 
the spouses of the Lord in the seclusion of the sanctuary. It was reserved for 
Luther, the gross profaner of Catharine de Bore, to act in defiance of the pro- 
found and delicate wisdom of the Church on this point. After the apostate 
monk had violated the sacred seal set by religion on the nuptial bed, his was 
the unchaste hand to tear away the sacred veil of virgins consecrated to Grod : 
it was worthy of his hard heart to excite the cupidity of princes, to induce them 
to seize upon the possessions of these defenceless virgins, and expel them from 
their abodes. See him everywhere excite the flame of sensuality, and break 
through all control. What will become of virgins devoted to the sanctuary ? 
Like timid doves, will they not fall into the snares of the libertine ? Is this 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



147 



the way to increase the respect paid to the female sex ? Is this the way to 
increase the feeling of modesty and to advance humanity? Was this the way 
in which Luther gave a generous impulse to future generations, perfected the 
human mind, and gave vigor and splendor to refinement and civilization ? What 
man with a tender and sensitive heart can endure the shameless declamation 
of Luther, especially if he has read the Cyprians, the Ambroses, the Jeromes, 
and the other shining lights of the Catholic Church, on the sublime honor of 
the Christian virgin ? Who, then, will object to see, during ages when the 
most savage barbarism prevailed, those secluded dwellings where the spouses of 
the Lord secured themselves from the dangers of the world, incessantly em- 
ployed in raising their hands to heaven, to draw down upon the earth the dews 
of divine mercy ? In times and countries the most civilized, how sad is the 
contrast between the asylums of the purest and loftiest virtue, and the ocean of 
dissipation and profligacy ! Were these abodes a remnant of ignorance, a mo- 
nument of fanaticism, which the coryphaei of Protestantism did well to sweep 
from the earth ? If this be so, let us protest against all that is noble and dis- 
interested ) let us stifle in our hearts all enthusiasm for virtue ; let every thing 
be reduced to the grossest sensuality ; let the painter throw away his pencil, the 
poet his lyre ; let us forget our greatness and our dignity ; let us degrade our- 
selves, saying, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die !" 

No ; true civilization can never forgive Protestantism for this immoral and 
impious work ; true civilization can never forgive it for having violated the 
sanctuary of modesty and innocence, for having employed all its efforts to 
destroy respect for virginity; thus treading under foot a doctrine professed by 
all the human race. It did not respect what was venerated by the Greeks in 
the priestesses of Ceres, by the Romans in their vestals, by the Gauls in their 
druidesses, by the Germans in their prophetesses. It has carried the want of 
respect for modesty farther than was ever done by the dissolute nations of Asia, 
and the barbarians of the new world. It is certainly a disgrace for Europe to 
have attacked what was respected in all parts of the world, to have treated as a 
mistaken prejudice the universal belief of the human race, sanctioned, more- 
over, by Christianity. What invasion of barbarians was equal to this attack 
of Protestantism on all that ought to be most inviolable among men ? It has 
set the fatal example in modern revolutions of the crimes which have been com- 
mitted. 

When we see, in warlike rage, the barbarity of the conquerors remove all 
restraint from a licentious soldiery, and let them loose against the abodes of 
virgins consecrated to God, there is nothing but what may be conceived. But 
when these holy institutions are persecuted by system, when the passions of the 
populace are excited against them, by grossly assailing their origin and object, 
this is more than brutal and inhuman. It is a thing which cannot be described, 
when those who act in this way boast of being Reformers, followers of the pure 
Gospel, and proclaim themselves the disciples of Him who, in His sublime 
councils, has pointed out virginity as one of the noblest virtues that can adorn 
the Christian's crown. Now, who is ignorant that this was one of the works to 
which Protestantism devoted itself with the greatest ardor ? 

Woman without modesty will be an incentive to sensuality, but will never 
attract the soul by the mysterious feeling which is called love. It is very re- 
markable, that although the most urgent desire of the heart of woman is to 
please, yet as soon as she forgets modesty she becomes displeasing and disgust- 
ing. Thus it is wisely ordained that what wounds her heart the most sharply, 
becomes the punishment of her fault. Hence, every thing that maintains in 
woman the delicate feeling of modesty, elevates her, adorns her, gives her greater 
ascendency over the heart of man, and creates for her a distinguished place in 
the domestic as well as in the social order. These truths were not understood 



148 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



by Protestantism when it condemned virginity. It is true this virtue is not a 
necessary condition of modesty, but it is its beau ideal and type of perfection ; 
and certainly we cannot destroy this model, by denying its beauty, by condemn- 
ing its imitation as injurious, without doing great injury to modesty itself, which, 
continually struggling against the most powerful passion of the heart of man, 
cannot be preserved in all its purity, unless it be accompanied by the greatest 
precautions. Like a flower of infinite delicacy, of ravishing colours, of the 
sweetest perfume, it can scarcely support the slightest breath of wind j its beauty 
is destroyed with extreme facility, and its perfume readily evaporates. 

But you will perhaps urge against virginity the injury which it does to popu- 
lation ) you will consider the offerings which are made on the altar by this vir- 
tue as so much taken from the multiplication of the human race. Fortunately 
the observations of the most distinguished political economists have destroyed 
this delusion, originated by Protestantism, and supported by the incredulous 
philosophy of the 18th century. Facts have shown, in a convincing manner, 
two truths of equal importance in vindicating Catholic doctrines and institu- 
tions ; 1, that the happiness of nations is not necessarily in proportion to the 
increase of their population ; 2, that the augmentation and diminution of the 
population depend on many concurrent causes ; that religious celibacy, if it be 
among them, has an insignificant influence. 

A false religion and an illegitimate and egotistical philosophy have attempted 
to assimilate the secrets of this increase of the human race to that of other liv- 
ing beings. All idea of religion has been taken away; they have seen in 
humanity only a vast field where nothing was to be left sterile. Thus they have 
prepared the way for the doctrine which considers individuals as machines from 
which all possible profit should be drawn. No more was thought of charity, or 
the sublime instructions of religion with respect to the dignity and destinies of 
man ; thus industry has become cruel, and the organization of labor, established 
on a basis purely material, increases the present, but fearfully menaces the 
future well-being of the rich. 

How profound are the designs of Providence ! The nation which has carried 
these fatal principles to the fullest extent now finds itself overcharged with men 
and products. Frightful misery devours her most numerous classes, and all the 
ability of her rulers will not be able to avoid the rock she is running on, urged 
by the power of the elements to which she has abandoned herself. The emi- 
nent professors of Oxford who, it seems, begin to see the radical vices of Pro- 
testantism, would find here a rich subject for meditation, if they would examine 
how far the pretended reformers of the 16th century have contributed, in pre- 
paring the critical situation in which England finds herself, in spite of her im- 
mense progress. 

In the physical world all is disposed by number, weight, and measure ; the 
laws of the universe show infinite calculation — infinite geometry ; but let us 
not imagine that we can express all by our imperfect signs, and include every 
thing in our limited combinations ; let us, above all, avoid the foolish error of 
assimilating too much the moral and the physical world — of applying indiscrimi- 
nately to the first what only belongs to the second, and of upsetting by our pride 
the mysterious harmony of the creation. Man is not born simply for multipli- 
cation of his species j this is not the only part which he is intended to perform 
in the great machine of the universe ; he is a being according to the image and 
likeness of Grod — a being who has his proper destiny — a destiny superior to all 
that surrounds him on earth. Do not debase him, do not level him with the 
earth, by inspiring him with earthly thoughts alone ; do not oppress his heart, 
by depriving him of noble and elevated sentiments — by leaving him no taste 
for any but material enjoyments. If religious thoughts lead him to an austere 
life — if the inclination to sacrifice the pleasures of this life on the altar of the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



149 



G-od whom he adores takes possession of his heart — why should you hinder 
him ? What right have you to despise a feeling which certainly requires greater 
strength of mind than is necessary for abandoning one's self to pleasure ? 

These considerations, which affect both sexes, have still greater force when 
they are applied to the female. With her lively imagination, her feeling heart, 
and ardent mind, she has greater need than man of serious inspiration, of grave, 
solemn thoughts, to counterbalance the activity with which she flies from object 
to object, receiving with extreme facility impressions of every thing she touches, 
and, like a magnetic agent, communicating them in her turn to all that sur- 
rounds her. Allow, then, a portion of that sex to devote itself to a life of con- 
templation and austerity j allow young girls and matrons to have always before 
their eyes a model of all the virtues — a sublime type of their noblest ornament, 
which is modesty. This will certainly not be without utility. Be assured, these 
virgins are not taken away from their families, nor from society — both will 
recover with usury what you imagine they have lost. 

In fact, who can measure the salutary influence which the sacred ceremonies 
with which the Catholic Church celebrates the consecration of a virgin to God, 
must have exercised on female morals ! Who can calculate the holy thoughts, 
the chaste inspirations which have gone forth from those silent abodes of modesty, 
erected sometimes in solitary places, and sometimes in crowded cities ! Do you 
not believe that the virgin whose heart begins to be agitated by an ardent pas- 
sion, that the matron who has allowed dangerous feelings to enter her soul, have 
not often found their passions restrained by the remembrance of a sister, a rela- 
tive, a friend, who, in one of these silent abodes, raises her pure heart to 
Heaven, offering as a holocaust to the Divine Son of the blessed Virgin all the 
enchantments of youth and beauty ? All this cannot be calculated, it is true ; 
but this, at least, is certain, that no thought of levity, no inclination to sensu- 
ality has arisen therefrom. All this cannot be estimated \ but can we estimate 
the salutary influence exercised by the morning dew upon plants ? can we esti- 
mate the vivifying effect of light upon nature ? and can we understand how the 
water which filters through the bowels of the earth fertilizes it by producing 
fruits and flowers ? 

There is, then, an infinity of causes of which we cannot deny the existence 
and the power, but which it is nevertheless impossible to submit to rigorous 
examination. The cause of the impotence of every work exclusively emanat- 
ing from the mind of man is, that his mind is incapable of embracing the ensem- 
ble of the relations which exist in facts of this kind j it is impossible for him 
to appreciate properly the indirect influences — sometimes hidden, sometimes 
imperceptible — which act there with an infinite delicacy. This is the reason why 
time dispels so many illusions, belies so many prognostics, proves the weakness 
of what was reckoned strong, and the strength of what was considered weak. 
Indeed, time brings to light a thousand relations, the existence of which was 
not suspected, and puts into action a thousand causes which were either unknown 
or despised : the results advance in their development, appearing every day in 
a more evident manner, until at length we find ourselves in such a situation 
that we can no longer shut our eyes to the evidence of facts, or any longer evade 
their force. 

One of the greatest mistakes made by the opponents of Catholicity is this. 
They can only see things under one aspect ; they do not understand how a force 
can act otherwise than in a straight line ; they do not see that the moral world, 
as well as the physical, is composed of relations infinitely varied, and of indi- 
rect influences, sometimes acting with more force than if they were direct. All 
form a system correlative and harmonious, the parts of which it is necessary to 
avoid separating, more than is absolutely needful for becoming acquainted with 
the hidden and delicate ties which connect the whole. It is necessary, more- 

n2 



150 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



over, to allow for the action of time, that indispensable element in all complete 
development, in every lasting work. 

I trust I shall be pardoned for this short digression, necessary for the incul- 
cation of the great truths which have not been sufficiently attended to in exa- 
mining the great institutions founded by Catholicity. Philosophy is now com- 
pelled to withdraw propositions advanced too boldly, and to modify principles 
applied too generally. It would have avoided this trouble and mortification by 
being cautious and circumspect in its investigations. In league with Protest- 
antism, it declared deadly war against the great Catholic institutions j it loudly 
appealed against moral and religious centralization. And now a unanimous 
shout is raised from all quarters of the world in favour of the principle of unity. 
The instinct of nations seeks for it ; philosophers examine the secrets of science 
to discover it. Vain efforts ! No other foundation can be established than 
that which is already laid ; duration depends upon solidity. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Or CHIVALRY AND BARBARIAN MANNERS, IN THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE 
CONDITION OF WOMEN. 

An indefatigable zeal for the sanctity of marriage, and an anxious solicitude 
to carry the principle of modesty to the highest degree of delicacy, are the two 
rules which have guided Catholicity in her efforts for the elevation of woman. 
These are the two great means she has employed in attaining her object, and 
hence comes the influence and importance of women in Europe. M. G-uizot is, 
therefore, wrong in saying that "it is to the development, to the necessary pre- 
ponderance of domestic manners in the feudal system, that this change, this 
improvement in their condition is chiefly owing." I will not discuss the greater 
or less influence of the feudal system on the development of European man- 
ners. Undoubtedly when the feudal lord " shall have his wife, his children, 
and scarcely any others in his house, they alone will form his permanent so- 
ciety ; they alone will share his interests, his destiny. It is impossible for 
domestic influence not to acquire great power." (Legon 4.) But if the lord, 
returning to his castle, found one wife there, and not many, to what was that 
owing ? Who forbade him to abuse his power by turning his house into a 
harem ? Who bridled his passions and prevented his making victims of his 
timid vassals ? Surely these were the doctrines and morals introduced into 
Europe, and deeply rooted there by the Catholic Church j it was the strict laws 
which she imposed as a barrier to the invasions of the passions ; therefore, even 
if we suppose that feudality did produce this good, it is still owing to the 
Catholic Church. 

That which has no doubt tended to exaggerate the influence of feudality in 
all that raises and ennobles women, is a fact that appears very evidently at that 
period, and is dazzling at first sight. This is the brilliant spirit of chivalry, 
which, rising out of the bosom of the feudal system, and rapidly diffusing itself, 
produced the most heroic actions, gave birth to a literature rich in imagination 
and feeling, and contributed in great measure to soften and humanize the savage 
manners of the feudal lords. This period is particularly distinguished for the 
spirit of gallantry; not the gallantry which consists generally in the tender 
relations of the two sexes, but a greatly exaggerated gallantry on the part of 
man, combining, in a remarkable way, the most heroic courage with the most 
lively faith and the most ardent religion. Grod and his lady; such is the con- 
stant thought of the knight ; this absorbs all his faculties, occupies all his time, 
&nd fills up all his existence. As long as he can obtain a victory over the infi- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



151 



dels, and is supported by the hope of offering at the feet of his lady the tro- 
phies of his triumph, no sacrifice costs him any thing, no journey fatigues, no 
danger affrights, no enterprise discourages him. His excited imagination trans- 
ports him into a world of fancy ; his heart is on fire ; he undertakes all, he 
finishes all; and the man who has just fought like a lion on the plains of Spain, 
or of Palestine, melts like wax at the name of the idol of his heart ; then he 
turns his eyes amorously towards his country, and is intoxicated with the idea 
that one day, sighing under the castle of his beloved, he may obtain a pledge 
of her affection, or a promise of love. Woe to any one who is bold enough to 
dispute his treasure, or indiscreet enough to fix his eyes on those battlements. 
The lioness who has been robbed of her cubs is not more terrible, the forest torn 
to pieces by the hurricane is not more agitated than his heart ; nothing can 
stop his vengeance, he must destroy his rival or die. In examining this mix- 
ture of mildness and ferocity, of religion and passion, which, no doubt, has been 
exaggerated by the fancies of chroniclers and troubadours, but which must have 
had a real type, we shall observe that it was very natural at that time, and that 
it is not so contradictory as it appears at first sight. Indeed, nothing was more 
natural than violent passions among men whose ancestors, not long before, had 
come from the forests of the north to pitch their bloody tents on the site of 
ruined cities ; nothing was more natural than that there should be no other 
judge than strength of arm among men whose only profession was war, and 
who lived in an embryo society, where there was no public law strong enough 
to restrain private passions. Nothing, too, was more natural to those men than 
a lively sense of religion, for religion was the only power which they acknow- 
ledged ; she had enchanted their imaginations by the splendour and magnifi- 
cence of her temples, by the majesty and pomp of her worship. She had filled 
them with astonishment, by placing before their eyes the most sublime virtue, 
by addressing them in language as lofty as it was sweet and insinuating ; lan- 
guage, no doubt, imperfectly understood by them, but which, nevertheless, con- 
vinced them of the holiness and divinity of the Christian mysteries and pre- 
cepts, inspired them with respect and admiration, and also exercising a powerful 
influence on their minds, enkindled enthusiasm and produced heroism. Thus 
we see that all that was good in this exalted sentiment emanated from religion; 
if we take away faith, we shall find nothing but the barbarian, who knew no 
other law than his spear, and no other rule of conduct than the inspirations of 
his fiery soul. 

The more we penetrate into the spirit of chivalry and examine in particular 
the feelings which it professed towards women, the more we shall see that, 
instead of raising them, it supposes them already raised and surrounded by 
respect. Chivalry does not give a new place to women ; it finds them already 
honoured and respected ; and indeed, if it were not so, how could it imagine a 
gallantry so exaggerated, so fantastical ? But if we imagine to ourselves the beauty 
of a virgin covered by the veil of Christian modesty; if we imagine this charm in- 
creased by illusion, we shall then understand the madness of the knight. If we 
imagine, at the same time, the virtuous matron, the companion of man, the mother 
of a family, the only woman in whom were concentrated all the affections of hus- 
band and children, the Christian wife, we shall understand why the knight was 
intoxicated at the mere idea of obtaining so much happiness, why his love was 
more than a sensual feeling, it was a respect, a veneration, a worship. 

It has been attempted to find the origin of this kind of worship in the man- 
ners of the Germans; on the strength of some expressions of Tacitus, the 
social amelioration of woman's lot has been attributed to the respect with which 
the barbarians surrounded her. M. Guizot rejects this assertion, and justly 
combats it by observing that what Tacitus tells us of the Germans was not ex- 
clusively applicable to them, since " phrases similar to those of Tacitus, and 



152 PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 

sentiments and customs analogous to those of the ancient Germans, are met 
with in the statements of many observers of savage or barbarous nations." 
Yet in spite of this wise remark, the same opinion has been maintained : it is 
necessary, then, to combat it again. 

The passage of Tacitus is this : " Inesse quin etiam sanctum aliquid et provi- 
dum putant, nec aut consilia eorum aspernantur, aut responsa negligunt. Vidi- 
mus sub Divo Vespasiano Velledam diu apud plerosque numinis loco habitare." 
{Be Mor. Germ.) " They go so far as to think that there is in women some- 
thing holy and prophetical j they do not despise their counsels, and they 
listen to their predictions. In the time of the divine Yespasian, we have seen 
the greater part of them for a long time regard Yelleda as a goddess." It seems 
to me that it is mistaking the passage of Tacitus, to extend its meaning to do- 
mestic manners, and to see in it a trait of married life. If we attend to the 
historian's words, we shall see that such an explanation is far from his idea. 
His words only relate to the superstition which made the people attribute to 
some women the prophetic character. Even the example chosen by Tacitus 
serves to show the truth and justness of this observation. " Yelleda," he says, 
" was regarded as a goddess." In another part of his works, Tacitus explains 
his idea by telling us, of this same Yelleda, " that this girl of the nation of 
Bructeres enjoyed great power, owing to an ancient custom among the Ger- 
mans, which made them look upon many women as prophetesses, and, in fine, 
with the progress of superstition, as real divinities." " Ea virgo nationis Bruc- 
terae late imperitabat, vetere apud Germanos more quo plerasque foeminarum 
fatidicas et augescente superstitione arbitrantur deas." {Hist. 4.) The text 
which I have just quoted proves to demonstration that Tacitus speaks of super- 
stition and not of family regulations, very different things; as it might easily 
happen that some women were regarded as divinities, while the rest of their sex 
only occupied a place in society inferior to that which belonged to them. At 
Athens, great importance was given to the priestesses of Ceres ) at Borne to the 
Yestals, the Pythonesses ; and the history of the Sibyls shows that it was not 
peculiar to the Germans to attribute the prophetical character to women. It is 
not for me now to explain the cause of these facts ; it is enough for my pur- 
pose to state them ; perhaps, on this point, physiology might throw light on the 
philosophy of history. 

When Tacitus, in the same work, describes the severity of the manners of the 
Germans with respect to marriage, it is easy to observe that the order of super- 
stition and the order of the family were among them very different. We have 
no longer here any thing of the sanctum et providum ; we find only a jealous 
austerity in maintaining the line of duty ; and we see woman, instead of being 
regarded as a goddess, given up to the vengeance of the husband, if she has 
been unfaithful. This curious passage proves that the power of man over 
woman was not much limited by the customs of the Germans. " Accisis crini- 
bus," says Tacitus, " nudatam coram propinquis expellit domo maritus, ac per 
omnem vicum verbere agit." " After having cut off her hair, the husband 
drives her from his house in presence of her relations, and beats her with rods 
ignominiously through the village." Certainly this punishment gives us an 
idea of the infamy which was attached to adultery among the Germans ; but it 
was little calculated to increase the respect entertained for them publicly ; this 
would have been greater had they been stoned to death. 

When we read in Tacitus the description of the social state of the Germans, 
we must not forget that some traits of their manners are purposely embellished 
by him, which is very natural for a writer of his sentiments. We must not 
forget that Tacitus was indignant and afflicted at the sight of the fearful cor- 
ruption of manners at that time in Rome. He paints, it is true, in glowing 
colours, the sanctity of marriage among the Germans \ but who does not see 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



153 



that, when doing so, he had before his eyes matrons who, according to Seneca, 
reckoned their years not by the succession of consuls, but by change of hus- 
bands, and women without a shadow of modesty, given up to the greatest pro- 
fligacy ? We can easily see to whom he alludes when he makes these severe 
remarks : " Nemo enim illic vitia ridet, nec corrumpere et corrumpi saeculum 
vocatur.'' " There vice is not laughed at, and corruption is not called the 
fashion." A strong expression, which describes the age, and explains to us the 
secret joy with which Tacitus cast in the face of Rome, so refined and so cor- 
rupted, the pure image of German manners. That which sharpened the rail- 
lery of Juvenal and evenomed his bitter satires, excited the indignation of Ta- 
citus, and drew from his grave philosophy these severe reprimands. Other in- 
formation which we possess shows us that the pictures of Tacitus are embellished, 
and that the manners of this people were far from being as pure as he wishes 
to persuade us. Perhaps they may have been strict with respect to marriage ; 
but it is certain that polygamy was not unknown among them. Caesar, an eye- 
witness, relates, that the German king Ariovistus had two wives (de Bella Gal- 
ileo, I. i.); and this was not a solitary instance, for Tacitus himself tells us that 
a few of them had several wives at once, not on account of sensuality, but for 
distinction. " Exceptis admodum paucis, qui non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem, 
pluribus nuptiis ainbiuntur." This distinction, non libidine sed ob nobilitatem, 
is amusing; but it is clear that the kings and nobles, under one pretence or 
another, allowed themselves greater liberty than the severe historian would 
have approved of. 

Who can tell what was the state of morality among those forests ? If we 
may be allowed to conjecture by analogy, from the resemblance which may 
naturally be supposed to exist among the different nations of the North, what 
an idea might we conceive of it from certain customs of the Britons, who, in 
bodies of ten or twelve, had their wives in common; chiefly brothers with 
brothers, and fathers with sons ; so that they were compelled to distinguish the 
families conventionally, by giving the children to him who had first married 
the woman ! It is from Caesar, an eye-witness, that we also learn this : " Uxores 
habent (Britanni) deni duodenique inter se communes, et maxime fratres cum 
fratribus et parentes cum liberis ; sed si qui sunt ex his nati, eorum habentur 
liberi a quibus primum virgines quaeque ductae sunt/' {De Bello Gallieo, 1. v.) 

However this may have been, it is at least certain that the principle of mono- 
gamy was not so much respected among the Germans as people have been will- 
ing to suppose ; an exception was made in favour of the nobles, that is, of the 
powerful ; and that was enough to deprive the principle of all its force, and to 
prepare its ruin. In such a matter, to establish an exception to the law in 
favour of the powerful, is almost to abrogate it. It may be said, I admit, that 
the powerful will never want means of violating it ; but it is one thing for 
the powerful to violate the law, and another for the law itself to retire before 
them, leaving the way open : in the first case, the employment of force does 
not destroy the law — the very shock which breaks it, makes its existence felt, 
and visibly shows the wrong and injustice ; in the second case, the law prosti- 
tutes itself, if I may so speak ; the passions have no need of force to open for 
themselves a passage, the law itself opens the door for them. From that time 
it remains degraded and disgraced ; its own baseness has undermined the moral 
principle on which it was founded and, owing to its own fault, it becomes itself 
the subject of animadversion to those who are still compelled to observe it. 
Thus the right of polygamy, once recognised among the Germans in favour of 
the great, must, with time, have become general among the other classes of the 
people ; and it is very probable that this was the case when the conquest of 
more productive countries, the enjoyment of more genial climates, and some 
improvement in their social condition furnished them more abundantly with 
20 



154 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the means of gratifying their inclinations. An evil so great could only be with- 
stood by the inflexible severity of the Catholic Church. Nobles and kings still 
had a strong inclination towards the privileges which we have seen their prede- 
cessors enjoying before they embraced the Christian religion. Thence it came 
that, in the first centuries after the irruption of the barbarians, the Church had 
so much trouble in restraining their violent inclinations. Would not those who 
have endeavored to find among the Germans so large a portion of the constitu- 
tive elements of modern civilization have shown more wisdom, if they had 
recognised, in the manners which we have been examining, one of the causes 
which made the struggles between the secular princes and the Church so frequent ? 

I do not see why we should seek in the forests of the barbarians for the origin 
of one of the finest attributes of our civilization, or why we should give to those 
nations virtues of which they showed so little evidence when they invaded the 
countries of the south. 

Without monuments, without history — almost without any index as to their 
social condition — it is difficult, not to say impossible, to know any thing certain 
with respect to their manners j but I ask, what must have been their morality, 
in the midst of such ignorance, such superstition, and such barbarism ? 

The little that we know about these nations has been necessarily taken from 
the Roman historians ; and unfortunately this is not one of the purest sources. 
It almost always happens that observers, especially when they are conquerors, 
only give some slight notions with regard to the political state of a people, and 
are almost silent as to their social and domestic condition. In order to form an 
idea of this part of the condition of a nation, it is necessary to mingle with 
them, and be intimate with them ; now this is generally prevented by their dif- 
ferent states of civilization, especially when the observers and the observed are 
exasperated against each other by long years of war and slaughter. Add to 
this, that, in such cases, the attention is particularly attracted by what favors 
or opposes the designs of the conquerors, who for the most part attach no great 
importance to moral subjects; this will show us how it is that nations who are 
observed in this way are only superficially known, and why such statements 
with respect to religion and manners are unworthy of much confidence. 

The reader will judge whether these reflections are out of place in estimating 
the value of what the Romans have told us about the state of the barbarians. 
It is enough to fix our eyes on the scenes of blood and horror prevailing for 
centuries, which show us, on the one hand, the ambition of Rome, which, not 
content with the empire of the then known world, wished to extend its power 
over the most distant forests of the North ; and, on the other, the indomitable 
spirit of barbarian independence, breaking in pieces the chains which were 
attempted to be imposed upon them, and destroying, by their bold incursions, 
the ramparts which the skill of the Roman generals labored to raise against 
them. Sec, then, what we ought to think of barbarian society, as described by 
Roman historians. What shall we think, if we consult the few traits which the 
barbarians themselves have left us, of their manners and maxims with respect 
to their social condition ? It is always risking much to seek in barbarism for 
the origin of one of the most beautiful results of civilization, and to attribute 
to vague and superstitious feelings what, during centuries, forms the normal 
state of the most advanced nations. If these noble sentiments, which are 
represented to us as emanating from the barbarians, really existed among them, 
how did they avoid perishing in the midst of their migrations and revolutions ? 
How did they alone remain, when every thing relating to the social condition 
of the barbarians disappeared ? 

These sentiments would not have been preserved in a stationary state, but 
we should have seen them stripped of their superstition and grossness, purified, 
ennobled, and made reasonable, just, salutary, chivalrous, and worthy of civi- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



155 



lized nations. Such assertions have, from the first sight, the character of bold 
paradoxes. Certainly, when we have to explain great phenomena in the social 
order, it is rather more philosophical to seek for their origin in ideas which for 
a long time have exercised a powerful influence on society, in manners and insti- 
tutions emanating from them, in laws, in fine, which have been recognised and 
respected for many centuries as established by Divine power. 

Why, then, attempt to explain the respect in which women are held in Eu- 
rope, by the superstitious veneration which barbarous nations offered in their 
forests to Velleda, Aurinia, and G-auna ? Reason and good sense tell us that 
the real origin of this wonderful phenomenon is not to be found there, and that 
we must seek elsewhere for the causes which have contributed to produce it. 
History reveals to us these causes, and renders them palpable to us, by showing 
us facts which leave no doubt as to the source whence this powerful and salutary 
influence emanated. Before Christianity, woman, oppressed by the tyranny of 
man, was scarcely raised above the rank of slavery; her weakness condemned 
her to be the victim of the strong. The Christian religion, by its doctrines of 
fraternity in Jesus Christ, and equality before God, destroys the evil in its root, 
by teaching man that woman ought not to be his slave, but his companion. 
From that moment the amelioration of woman's lot was felt wherever Chris- 
tianity was spread ; and woman, as far as the degradation of ancient manners 
allowed, began to gather the fruit of a doctrine which was to make a complete 
change in her condition, by giving her a new existence. This is one of the 
principal causes of the amelioration of woman's lot : a sensible, palpable cause, 
which is easily shown without making any gratuitous supposition, a cause 
which is not founded on conjecture, but which appears evident on the first 
glance at the most notorious facts of history. 

Moreover, Catholicity, by the severity of its morality, by the lofty protection 
which it affords to the delicate feeling of modesty, corrected and purified man- 
ners ; thus it very much elevated woman, whose dignity is incompatible with 
corruption and licentiousness. In fine, Catholicity itself, or the Catholic Church, 
(and observe, I do not say Christianity,) by its firmness in establishing and pre- 
serving monogamy and the indissolubility of the marriage tie, restrained the 
caprices of man, and made him concentrate his affections on one wife, who could 
not be divorced. Thus woman passed from a state of slavery to that of the 
companion of man. The instrument of pleasure was changed into the mother 
of a family, respected by her children and servants. Thus was created in the 
family identity of interests; thus was guarantied the education of children, 
which produced the close intimacy which among us unites husband and wife, 
parents and children. The atrocious right of life and death was destroyed; the 
father had not even the right to inflict punishments too severe ; and all this 
admirable system was strengthened by ties strong but mild, was based on the 
principles of sound morality, sustained by prevailing manners, guarantied and 
protected by the laws, fortified by reciprocal interests, sanctioned by time, and 
endeared by love. This is the truly satisfactory explanation of the enigma; 
this is the origin of the honor and dignity of woman in Europe ; thence we 
have derived the organization of the family, — an inestimable benefit which 
Europeans possess without appreciating it, without being sufficiently acquainted 
with it, and watching over its preservation as they ought. 

In treating of this important matter, I have purposely distinguished between 
Christianity and Catholicity, in order to avoid a confusion in words, which 
would have entailed a confusion in things. In reality, the true, the only Chris- 
tianity is Catholicity; but, unfortunately, we cannot now employ these words 
indiscriminately, not only on account of Protestantism, but also on account of 
the monstrous philosophico-Christian nomenclature which ranks Christianity 
among philosophical sects, as if it were nothing more than a system imagined 



156 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



by man. As the principle of charity plays a great part wherever the religion 
of Jesus Christ is found, and as this principle is evident even to the eyes of the 
incredulous, philosophers who have wished to persevere in their incredulity 
without incurring the scandalous epithet of disciples of Voltaire, have adopted 
the words fraternity and humanity, to make them the theme of their instruc- 
tions ; they have consented to give to Christianity the chief glory of originat- 
ing its sublime ideas and generous sentiments : thus they appear not to contra- 
dict the history of the past as the philosophy of the age gone by in its madness 
did ; but they pretend to accommodate all to the present time, and prepare the 
way for a greater and happier future. For these philosophers Christianity is 
not a divine religion ; by no means. With them it is an idea, fortunate, mag- 
nificent, and fruitful in grand results, but purely human ; it is the result of long 
and painful human labors. Polytheism, Judaism, the philosophy of the East, 
of Egypt, of Greece, were all preparatory to that great work. Jesus Christ, 
according to them, only moulded into form an idea which was in embryo in the 
bosom of humanity. He fixed and developed it, and, by reducing it to practice, 
made the human race to take a step of great importance in the path of progress 
into which it has entered. But, He is always, in the eyes of these philosophers, 
nothing more than a philosopher of Judea, as Socrates was of Greece, and 
Seneca of Rome. Still we should rejoice that they grant to Him this human 
existence, and do not transform Him into a mythological being, by considering 
the Gospel narrative as a mere allegory. 

Thus, at the present time, it is of the first importance to distinguish between 
Christianity and Catholicity, whenever we have to bring to light and present to 
the gratitude of mankind the unspeakable benefits for which they are indebted 
to the Christian religion. It is necessary to show that what has regenerated the 
world was not an idea thrown at hazard among all those who have struggled for 
preference and pre-eminence ; but that it was a collection of truths sent from 
Heaven, transmitted to the human race by a God made Man, by means of a 
society formed and authorized by Himself, in order to perpetuate to the end of 
time the work which His word had established, which His miracles had sanc- 
tioned, and which He had sealed with His blood. It is consequently necessary 
to exhibit this society, that is, the Catholic Church, realizing in her laws and 
institutions the inspirations and instructions of her Divine Master, and accom- 
plishing the lofty mission of leading men towards eternal happiness, while ame- 
liorating their condition here below, and consoling them in this land of misfor- 
tune. In this way we form a correct idea of Christianity, if we may so speak, 
or rather we show it as it really is, not as men vainly represent it. And observe, 
that we ought never to fear for the truth, when the facts of history are fully 
and searchingly examined. If in the vast field into which our investigations 
lead us, we sometimes find ourselves in obscurity, walking for a long time in 
dark vaults which the rays of the sun do not visit, and where the soil under 
our feet threatens to swallow us up, let us fear nothing, let us advance with 
courage and confidence ; amid the darkest windings we shall discover at a dis- 
tance the light that shines upon the end of our journey; we shall see truth 
seated on the threshold, placidly smiling at our terrors and anxieties. 

To philosophers, as well as to Protestants, we would say, if Christianity 
were not realized in a visible society, always in contact with man, and provided 
with the authority necessary for teaching and guiding him, it would be only a 
theory, like all others that have been and still are seen on the earth; conse- 
quently it would be either altogether sterile, or at least unable to produce any 
of those great works which endure unimpaired for ages. Now one of these is 
undoubtedly Christian marriage, and the family organization which has been its 
immediate consequence. It would have been vain to advance notions favorable 
to the dignity of woman and tending to improve her lot, if the sanctity of mar- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



157 



riage had not been guarantied by a power generally acknowledged and revered. 
That power is continually struggling against the passions which labor to over- 
come it; what would have happened if they had had to contend with no other 
obstacle than a philosophic theory, or a religious idea without reality in society, 
and without power to obtain submission and obedience ? 

We have, then, no need of recurring to that extravagant philosophy which 
seeks for light in the midst of darkness, and which, on seeing order arise out of 
chaos, has conceived the singular notion of affirming that it was produced by it. 
If we find in the doctrines, in the laws of the Catholic Church the origin of the 
sanctity of marriage and the dignity of woman, why should we seek for it in 
the manners of brutal barbarians, who had no veil for modesty and the privacy 
of the nuptial couch? Let us hear Caesar speaking of the G-ermans: " Nulla 
est occultatio, quod et promiscui in fluminibus perluuntur, et pellibus aut 
rhenorum tegumentis utuntur, magna corporis parte nuda." (Be Bello 
Gall 1. vi.) 

I have been obliged to oppose authority to authority; I was under the neces- 
sity of destroying the fantastical systems into which men have been seduced by 
an over love of subtilty, by the mania of finding extraordinary causes for phe- 
nomena, the origin of which may easily be discovered when we have recourse, 
in good faith and sincerity, to the concurring instructions of philosophy and 
history. It was highly necessary, in order to clear up one of the most delicate 
questions in the history of the human race, and to find the source of one of the 
most fruitful elements of European civilization. My task was nothing less than 
to explain the organization of families, that is, to fix one of the poles on which 
the axis of society turns. 

Let Protestantism boast of having introduced divorce, of having deprived 
marriage of the beautiful and sublime character of a sacrament, of having with- 
drawn from the care and protection of the Church the most important act of 
human life; let it rejoice in having destroyed the sacred asylums of virgins 
consecrated to God; let it declaim against the most angelic and heroic virtue; 
let us, after having defended the doctrine and conduct of the Catholic Church 
at the tribunal of philosophy and history, conclude by appealing to the judg- 
ment, not indeed of high philosophy, but of good sense and feeling. (18) 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

OF THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE IN GENERAL. 

When enumerating, in the twentieth chapter, the characteristics which mark 
European civilization, I pointed out, as one of them, "an admirable public 
conscience, rich in sublime maxims of morality, in rules of justice and equity, 
in sentiments of honor and dignity, a conscience which survives the shipwreck 
of private morality, and does not allow the open corruption to go so far as it 
did in ancient times." We must now explain more at length in what this 
public conscience consists, what is its origin, what are its results, showing at 
the same time what share Catholicity and Protestantism have had in its forma- 
tion. This delicate and important question is, I will venture to say, untouched; 
at least I do not know that it has yet been attempted. Men constantly speak 
of the excellence of Christian morality, and on this point all the sects, all the 
schools of Europe are agreed; but they do not pay sufficient attention to the 
way in which that morality has become predominant, by first destroying Pagan 
corruption, then by maintaining itself for centuries in spite of the ravages of 
infidelity, so as to form an admirable public conscience ; a benefit which we 
now enjoy without appreciating it as we ought, and without even thinking of it. 





158 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



In order fully to comprehend this matter, it is above all necessary to form a 
clear idea of what is meant by conscience. Conscience in the general, or rather 
idealogical sense of the word, means the knowledge which each man has of his 
own acts. Thus we say that the soul is conscious of its thoughts, of the acts 
of its will, and of its sensations ; so that the word conscience, taken in this 
sense, expresses a perception of what we do and feel. Applied to the moral 
order, this word signifies the judgment which we ourselves form of our actions 
as good or evil. Thus, when we are about to perform an action, conscience 
points it out to us as good or bad, and consequently lawful or unlawful j and it 
thus directs our conduct. The action being performed, it tells us whether we 
have done well or ill, it excuses or condemns us, it rewards us with peace of 
mind, or punishes us with remorse. 

This explanation being given, we shall easily understand what is meant by 
public conscience ; it is nothing but the judgment formed of their actions by 
the generality of men. It results from this that, like private conscience, the 
public conscience may be right or wrong, strict or relaxed ; and that there must 
be differences on this point among societies- of men, the same as there are 
among individuals j that is to say, that, as in the same society we find men 
whose consciences are more or less right or wrong, more or less strict or 
relaxed, we must also find societies superior to others in the justice of the 
judgment which they form on actions, and in the delicacy of their moral appre- 
ciation. 

If we observe closely, we shall see that individual conscience is the result of 
widely different causes. It is .an error to suppose that conscience resides solely 
in the intelligence ; it is also rooted in the heart. It is a judgment, it is true ; 
but we judge of things in a very different way according to the manner in 
which we feel them. Add to this, that the feelings have an immense influence 
on moral ideas and actions ; the result is, that conscience is formed under the 
influence of all the causes which forcibly act on our hearts. Communicate to 
two children the same moral principles, by teaching them from the same book 
and under the same master ; but suppose that one in his own family sees what 
he is taught constantly practised, while the other sees there nothing but 
indifference to it ; suppose, moreover, that these two children grow up with 
the same moral and religious conviction, so that as far as the intellect is con- 
cerned there is no difference between them ; nevertheless, do you believe that 
their judgment of the morality of actions will be the same ? By no means ; 
and why? Because the one has only convictions, while the other has also feel- 
ings. In the one, the doctrine enlightens the mind; while, in the other, 
example engraves it constantly on the heart. Thus what one regards with 
indifference, the other looks upon with horror; what the one does with negli- 
gence, the other performs with the greatest care ; and the same subject that to 
one is of slight interest, is to the other of the highest importance. 

Public conscience, which, in fact, is the sum of private consciences, is subject 
to the same influences as they are j so that mere instruction is not enough for 
it, and it requires the concurrence of other causes to act on the heart, as well as 
the mind. When we compare Christian with pagan society, we instantly see 
that the former must be infinitely superior to the latter on this point; not only 
on account of the purity of its morality, and the strength of the principles and 
motives sanctioning it, but also because it follows the wise course of continually 
inculcating this morality, and impressing it strongly on the mind by constant 
repetition. By this constant repetition of the same truths, Christianity has 
done what other religions never could do ; none of them, indeed, have ever suc- 
ceeded in organizing and putting into practice so important a system. But I 
have said enough on this point in the fourteenth chapter; it is useless to repeat 
it here; I pass on to some observations on the public conscience in Europe. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



159 



It cannot be denied that, generally speaking, reason and justice prevail in that 
public conscience. If you examine laws and actions, you will not find those 
shocking acts of injustice or those revolting immoralities which are to be met 
with among other nations. There are certainly evils, and very grave ones, but 
they are at least acknowledged, and called by their right names. We do not 
hear good called evil, or evil good ; that is to say, society, in certain things, is 
like those persons of good principles and bad morals who are the first to acknow- 
ledge that their conduct is blamable, and that their words and deeds contradict 
each other. We often lament the corruption of morals, the profligacy of our 
large towns ; but what is all the corruption and profligacy of modern society 
compared with the debauchery of the ancients ? It certainly cannot be denied 
that there is a fearful extent of dissoluteness in some of the capitals of Europe. 
The records of the police, as well as those of the benevolent establishments 
where the fruits of crime are received, show shocking demoralization. In the 
highest classes dreadful ravages are caused by conjugal infidelity, and all sorts 
of dissipation and disorder j yet these excesses are very far from reaching the 
extent which they did among the best-governed nations of antiquity, the Greeks 
and Romans. So that our society, which we so bitterly lament, would have ap- 
peared to them a model of modesty and decorum. Need we call to mind the 
infamous vices then so common and so public, and which have scarcely a name 
among us now, whether it be because they are so rarely committed, or because 
the fear of public conscience forces them to hide themselves in the dark places, 
and, so to speak, in the bowels of the earth ? Need we recall to mind the infa- 
mies which stain the writings of the ancients as often as they describe the man- 
ners of their times ? Names illustrious in science and in arms have passed down 
to posterity with stains so black that we cannot consent to describe them. Now, 
how corrupt must have been the state of the other classes, when such degra- 
dation was attributed to men who, by their elevated positions or other circum- 
stances, were the lights of society ! 

You talk of the avarice which is so prevalent now-a-days; but look at the 
usurers of antiquity who sucked the blood of the people everywhere ; read the 
satirical poets, and you will see what was the state of manners on this point \ 
consult, in fine, the annals of the Church, and you will see what pains she took 
to diminish the effects of this vice ; read the history of ancient Rome, and you 
will find the cursed thirst for gold, and lenders without mercy, who, after having 
impudently robbed, carried in triumph the fruits of their rapine to live with 
scandalous ostentation, and buy votes again to raise them to command. No, in 
European civilization, among nations taught and elevated by Christianity, such 
evils would not be long tolerated. If we suppose administrative disorder, tyranny, 
and corruption of morals carried as far as you please, still public opinion would 
raise its voice and frown on the oppressors. Partial injustice may be committed, 
but rapine will never be formed into a shameless system, or be regarded as the 
rule of government. Rely upon it, the words justice, morality, humanity, which 
constantly resound in our midst, are not vain words ; this language produces 
great results ; it destroys immense evils. These ideas impregnate the atmo- 
sphere we breathe ; they frequently restrain the arm of criminals, and resist with 
incredible force materialistic and utilitarian doctrines ; they continue to exert an 
incalculable influence on society. We have among us a feeling of morality 
which mollifies and governs all ; which is so powerful that vice is compelled to 
assume the appearance of virtue, and cover itself with many veils, in order to 
escape becoming the subject of public execration. 

Modern society, it would seem, ought to have inherited the corruption of the 
old, since it was formed out of its ruins, at a time when its morals were most 
dissolute. We must observe, that the irruption of the barbarians, far from im- 
proving society, contributed, on the contrary, to make it worse ; and this, not 



160 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



only on account of the corruption belonging to their fierce and brutal manners, 
but also on account of the disorder introduced among the nations they invaded, 
by violating laws, throwing their manners and customs into confusion, and de- 
stroying all authority. Whence it follows, that the improvement of public 
opinion among modern nations is a very singular fact ; and that this progress 
can only be attributed to the influence of the active and energetic principle which 
has existed in the bosom of Europe for so many centuries. 

Let us observe the conduct of the Church on this point — it is perhaps one of 
the most important facts in the history of the middle ages. Imagine an age 
when corruption and injustice most unblushingly raised their heads, and you 
will see that, however impure and disgusting the fact may be, the law is always 
pure ; that is to say, that reason and justice always found some one to proclaim 
them, even when they appeared to be listened to by nobody. The state of igno- 
rance was the darkest, licentious passions were uncontrolled ; but the instruc- 
tions and admonitions of the Church were never wanting j it is thus that, amidst 
the darkest night, the lighthouse shines from afar, to guide the mariners in 
safety. 

When in reading the history of the Church we see on all sides assembled 
councils proclaiming the principles of the gospel morality, while at every step 
we meet with the most scandalous proceedings ; when we constantly hear incul- 
cated the laws which are so often trodden under foot, it is natural to ask, of 
what use was all this, and of what benefit were instructions thus unheeded ? 
Let us not believe that these proclamations were useless, nor lose courage if we 
have to wait long for their fruits. 

A principle which is proclaimed for a long time in society will in the end 
acquire influence ; if it is true, and consequently contains an element of life, it 
will prevail in the end over all that opposes it, and will rule over all around it. 
Allow, then, the truth to speak — allow it to protest continually ; this will pre- 
vent the prescription of vice. Thus vice will preserve its proper name ; and 
you will prevent misguided men from deifying their passions, and placing them 
on their altars after having adored them in their hearts. Be confident that this 
protest will not be useless. Truth in the end will be victorious and triumphant; 
for the protests of truth are the voice of Gk>d condemning the usurpations of His 
creatures. This is what really happened ; Christian morality, first contending 
with the corrupt manners of the empire, and afterwards with the brutality of 
the barbarians, had for centuries rude shocks to sustain ; but at last it triumphed 
over all, and succeeded in governing legislation and public morals. We do not 
mean to say that it succeeded in raising law and morals to the degree of per- 
fection which the purity of the gospel morality required, but at least it did 
away the most shocking injustice; it banished the most savage customs; it 
restrained the license of the most shameless manners; it everywhere gave vice 
its proper name ; it painted it in its real colors, and prevented its being deified 
as impudently as it was among the ancients. In modern times, it has had to 
contend against the school which proclaims that private interest is the only prin- 
ciple of morals ; it has not been able, it is true, to prevent this fatal doctrine 
from causing great evils, but at least it has sensibly diminished them. Unhappy 
for the world will be the day when men shall say without disguise, " My own 
advantage is my virtue ; my honor is what is useful to myself ; all is good or 
evil, according as it is pleasing or displeasing to me." Unhappy for the world 
will be the day when such language will no longer be repudiated by public con- 
science. The opportunity now presenting itself, and wishing to explain so im- 
portant a matter as fully as possible, I will make some observations on an opinion 
of Montesquieu respecting the censors of Greece and Rome. This digression 
will not be foreign to the purpose. 



161 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

OF THE PRINCIPLE OP PUBLIC CONSCIENCE ACCORDING TO MONTESQUIEU — 

HONOR — VIRTUE. 

Montesquieu has said that republics are preserved by virtue, and monar- 
chies by honor. He observes, moreover, that honor renders the censors, who were 
required among the ancients, unnecessary among us. True it is, that in mo- 
dern times there are no censors charged with watching over the public morals ; 
but the cause of this is not as stated by this famous publicist. Among Chris- 
tian nations, the ministers of religion are the natural censors of public morals. 
The plenitude of this office belongs to the Church, with this difference, that the 
censorial power of the ancients was purely civil, while that of the Church is a 
religious power, which has its origin and sanction in divine authority. The 
religion of Greece and Rome neither did, nor could, exercise this censorial 
power over morals. To be convinced of this, it is enough to read the passage 
from St. Augustine, quoted in the fourteenth chapter — a passage so interesting 
on this matter, that I will venture to ask the reader to peruse it again. This is 
the reason why we find among the G-reeks and Romans censors who are not seen 
among Christian nations. These censors were an addition to the Pagan reli- 
gion, the impotence of which they clearly showed — a religion which was mis- 
tress of society, and yet could not fulfil one of the first duties of all religions — 
that of watching over the public morals. What I assert is so perfectly true, 
that in proportion as the influence of religion and the ascendency of its minis- 
ters have been lowered among modern nations, the ancient censors have reap- 
peared in some sort in the institution of police. When moral means are want- 
ing, it is necessary to have recourse to physical ones ; violence is substituted 
for persuasion, and instead of a zealous and charitable missionary, delinquents 
fall into the hands of the ministers of public justice. 

Much has been already written of the system of Montesquieu, with respect 
to the principles on which the different forms of government are based ; but 
perhaps sufficient attention has not been paid to the phenomenon which has 
served to mislead him. As this question is intimately connected with the point 
which I have just touched upon, in relation to the existence of the censorial 
authority, I shall explain myself at some length. In the time of Montesquieu, 
the Christian religion was not so fully understood as it now is with respect to 
its social importance ; and although on this point the author of the Esprit des 
Lois has done homage to her, it is well to remember what were his antichris- 
tian prejudices during his youth, and also that this work is still far from ren- 
dering to the true religion what is due to her. The ideas of an irreligious phi- 
losophy which, some years later, misled so many fine intellects, had begun at 
that time to gain the ascendant, and Montesquieu had not sufficient strength of 
mind to make a decided opposition to the prejudices which threatened universal 
dominion. To this cause we must add another, which, although distinct from 
the last, yet had the same origin, viz. a prejudice in favor of all that was old, 
and a blind admiration for every thing Roman or Grecian. It seemed to the 
philosophers of that time, that social and political perfection had reached their 
greatest height among the ancients, that there was nothing to be added to or 
taken from it, and that even in religion the fables and festivals of antiquity 
were a thousand times preferable to the faith and worship of the Christian reli- 
gion. In the eyes of the new philosophers, the heaven of the Apocalypse could 
not sustain a comparison with that of the Elysian fields; the majesty of Jeho- 
vah was inferior to that of Jupiter ; all the loftiest Christian institutions were 
a legacy of ignorance and fanaticism ; the most holy and beneficent institutions 
were the work of tortuous and interested views — the vehicle and expression of 
21 o2 



162 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



sordid interests ; public authority was only an atrocious tyranny ; and the only 
noble, just, and salutary institutions were those of Paganism. There every 
thing was wise, and evinced profound designs highly advantageous to society ; 
the ancients alone had enjoyed social advantages, and had succeeded in organiz- 
ing public authority, with guarantees for the liberty of citizens. Modern nations 
should bitterly lament not being able to mingle in the agitation of the forum, 
being deprived of such orators as Demosthenes and Cicero, — having no Olym- 
pic games, or contests of athletae ; in fine, they must always regret a religion 
which, although full of illusion and falsehood, gave to all nature a dramatic 
interest, gave life to fountains, rivers, cascades, and seas, peopled the fields, the 
meadows, and the woods with beautiful nymphs, gave to man gods as the com- 
panions of his hearth, and above all, knew how to render life pleasant and 
charming, by giving full scope to all the passions, and deifying them under the 
most enchanting forms. 

How, in the midst of such prejudices, was it possible to discover the truth 
in modern institutions ? Every thing was in the most deplorable state of con- 
fusion ; all that was established was condemned without appeal, and every one 
who attempted to defend it was considered a fool or a knave. Religion and poli- 
tical constitutions, which seemed destined soon to disappear, could reckon on 
no other support than the prejudices or the interests of governments. Lament- 
able aberration of the human mind ! What would these writers now say if they 
could arise from their tombs ? And yet a century has not yet elapsed since 
the epoch when their school began to acquire its influence. They have, for a 
long time, ruled the world at their pleasure ; and they have only shed torrents 
of blood, heaping lesson upon lesson, and deception upon deception, in the history 
of humanity. 

But let us return to Montesquieu. This publicist, who was so much affected 
I)y the atmosphere in which he lived, and who had no small share in perverting 
the age, saw the facts which are here so apparent ; he recognised the results of 
that public opinion which has been created among European nations by the in- 
fluence of Christianity. But while observing the effects, he did not ascertain 
the real causes, and labored in every way to accommodate them to his own sys- 
tem . In comparing ancient with modern society, he discovered between them 
a remarkable difference in the conduct of men ; he observed that we see accom- 
plished among us the noblest and most heroic actions, while we avoid a great 
part of the vices which defile the ancients ; but, on the other hand, Montesquieu, 
like others, could not help seeing that men among us have not always that 
high moral aim which ought to be the motive of their laudable conduct. Ava- 
rice, ambition, love of pleasure, and other passions, still reign in the world, and 
are easily discovered everywhere. Still these passions do not reach the excess 
they did among the ancients ; there is a mysterious power which restrains them ; 
"before giving way to their impulses, they throw a cautious glance around them, 
and do not indulge in certain excesses unless they are sure of being able to do 
so in secret. They have great dread of being seen by man } they can only live 
in solitude and darkness. The author of the Esprit des Lois asked himself 
what is the cause of this phenomenon. Men, he said to himself, often act, not 
from moral virtue, but from respect for the judgment which other men will pass 
upon their actions j this is to act from honor. Now, this is the case in France 
and in the other monarchies of Europe ; it must be, therefore, the distinctive 
characteristic of monarchical governments ; it must be the base of that form of 
government, the distinction between a republic and despotism. Let us hear the 
author himself : " Dans quel governement," says he, " faut il des censeurs ? II 
en faut dans une republique, ou le principe du governement est la vertu. Ce ne 
sont pas seulement les crimes qui detruisent la vertu, mais encore les negli- 
gences, les fautes, une certaine ti6deur dans 1' amour de la patrie, des exemples 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



163 



dangereux, des semences de corruption ; ce qui ne choque point les lois, mais 
les elude ; ce qui ne les detruit pas, mais les affaiblit. Tout cela doit etre cor- 
rige par les censeurs. * * * Dans les monarchies il ne faut point de cen- 
seurs, elles sont fondees sur l'honneur ; et la nature de l'honneur est d'avoir pour 
censeur tout Funivers. Tout homme qui y manque est soumis aux reproches 
de ceux memes qui n'en ont point." (De V Esprit des Lois, liv. v. chap. 19.) 
Such is the opinion of this publicist. But if we reflect on the matter, we shall see 
that he was wrong in transferring to politics, and explaining by simply political 
causes, a fact purely social. Montesquieu points out, as the distinguishing charac- 
teristic of monarchies, what is the general characteristic of all modern European 
society ; he seems not to have understood why the institution of censors was not 
necessary in Europe, any more than he did the real reason why they were required 
among the ancients. Monarchical forms have not exclusively prevailed in Europe. 
Powerful republics have existed there ; and there are still some not to be despised. 
Monarchy itself has undergone numerous modifications ; it has been allied some- 
times with democracy, sometimes with aristocracy ; sometimes its power has been 
very limited, and sometimes it has been unbounded ; and yet we always find this 
restraint which Montesquieu speaks of, and which he calls honor ; that is, a 
powerful influence stimulating to good deeds and deterring from bad, and all 
this from respect for the judgments which other men will pass. 

"Dans les monarchies," says Montesquieu, "il ne faut point de censeurs, elles 
sont fondees sur l'honneur; et la nature de l'honneur est d'avoir pour censeur 
tout Funivers f* remarkable words, which reveal to us the ideas of the writer, 
and at the same time show us the origin of his mistake. They will assist us in 
solving the enigma. In order to explain this point as fully as the importance 
of the subject requires, and with as much clearness as the multitude and intri- 
cacy of its relations demand, I shall endeavour to convey my ideas with as 
much precision as possible. 

Respect for the judgment of others is a feeling innate in man; consequently 
it is in his nature to do or avoid many things on account of this judgment. All 
this is founded on the simple fact of self-love : this is nothing but love of our 
own good fame, the desire of appearing to advantage, and the fear of appearing 
to disadvantage, in the eyes of our fellows. These things are so simple and clear, 
that they do not require or even admit of proofs or comments. Honor is a stimu- 
lant more or less active, or a restraint more or less powerful, according to the de- 
gree of severity which we expect in the judgments of others. Thus it is that the 
miser, when among the generous, makes an effort to appear liberal ; the prodigal 
restrains himself in the presence of the lovers of strict economy; in meetings where 
decorum generally reigns we see that even libertines control themselves, while men 
whose manners are usually correct allow themselves certain freedoms in licen- 
tious societies. Now the society in which we live is, as it were, one vast com- 
pany. If we know that strict principles prevail there, if we hear everywhere 
proclaimed the rules of sound morality, if we think that the generality of the 
men with whom we live give the right name to every action, without allowing 
the irregularity of their conduct to falsify their judgment, we see ourselves 
surrounded on all sides by witnesses and judges who cannot be corrupted ; and 
this checks us at every step when we wish to do evil, and urges us on when we 
wish to do good. It will be far otherwise if we have reason to expect indul- 
gence from the society in which we move. In this case, and supposing us all 
to entertain the same convictions, vice will not appear to us so horrible, crime 
so detestable, or corruption so disgusting ; our ideas with regard to the morality 
of our conduct will be very different, and in the end our actions will show the 
fatal influence of the atmosphere in which we live. It follows from this, that, 
in order to infuse into our hearts a feeling of honor strong enough to produce 
good, it is necessary that principles of sound morality should regulate society, 



164 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



and that they should be generally and fully believed. This being granted, 
social habits will be formed, which will regulate manners ; and even if these 
habits do not succeed in hindering the corruption of a great number of indivi- 
duals, they will, nevertheless, be sufficient to compel vice to adopt certain dis- 
guises, which, although hypocritical, will not fail to add to the decorum of man- 
ners. The salutary effects of these habits will still continue after the faith on 
which their moral principles are based has been considerably weakened, and 
society will still gather in abundance the beneficent fruits of the despised or 
forgotten tree. This is the history of the morality of modern nations : although 
lamentably corrupt, they are still not so bad as the ancients. They preserve in 
their legislation, and in their morals, a fund of morality and dignity which the 
ravages of irreligion have not been able to destroy. Public opinion never dies ; 
every day it censures vice, and extols the beauty and advantages of virtue ; it 
reigns over governments and nations, and exercises the powerful ascendency of 
an element which is found universally diffused. 

" Outre rAreopage," says Montesquieu, " il y avait a Athenes des gar- 
diens des mceurs et des gardiens des lois. A Lacedemone, tous les vieil- 
lards etaient censeurs. A Rome, deux magistrats particuliers avaient la cen- 
sure. Comme le Senat veille sur le peuple, il faut que des censeurs aient les 
yeux sur le peuple et sur le Senat. II faut qu'ils retablissent dans la republique 
tout ce qui a ete corrumpu, qu'ils notent la tiedeur, jugent les negligences, 
et corrigent les fautes, comme les lois punissent les crimes." (De V Esprit des 
Lois, liv. v. chap. 7.) In describing the duties of the censors of antiquity, the 
author seems to state the functions of religious authority. To penetrate where 
the civil laws do not extend; to correct, and in some measure to chastise, what 
they leave unpunished ; to exercise over society an influence more delicate and 
minute than that which belongs to legislation, — such are the objects of the 
censorial power ; and who does not see that that power has been replaced by 
religious authority ? and that if the former has been unnecessary among modern 
nations, it is owing to the existence of the latter, or to the influence which it 
has exercised for many centuries ? 

It cannot be denied that religious authority has for a long time gained a 
decided ascendency over men's minds and hearts ; this fact is written in every 
page of the history of Europe. As to the results of that influence, so calum- 
niated and ill understood, we meet with them every day, — we who see the prin- 
ciples of justice and sound morality still reigning over public conscience, in 
spite of the ravages which irreligion and immorality have committed among 
individuals. 

The powerful influence of public conscience will be best explained by some 
examples. Let us suppose that the richest of nobles, or the most powerful of 
monarchs, indulged in the abominable excesses of a Tiberius, a Nero, or the 
other monsters who disgraced the imperial throne, what would happen ? We 
will not predict ; but we are confident that the universal shout of indignation 
and horror would be so loud, and the monster would be so crushed under the 
load of public execration, that it appears to us impossible for him to exist. It 
seems to us an anachronism, an impossibility at this time. Even if we admit 
that there might be men immoral enough to commit such enormities, sufficiently 
perverted in mind and heart to exhibit such depravity, we see that it would be 
an outrage against universal morals, and that such a spectacle could not stand 
for a moment in presence of public opinion. I could draw numberless con- 
trasts, but I shall content myself with one, which, while it reminds us of a fine 
trait in ancient history, exhibits, with the virtue of a hero, the manners of the 
time and the melancholy condition of the public conscience. Let us suppose that 
a general of modern Europe captures by assault a town in which a distinguished 
lady, the wife of one of the principal leaders of the enemy, falls into the hands 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



165 



of the soldiers. The beautiful prisoner is brought to the general; what 
should be his conduct? Every one will immediately say, that she ought 
to be treated with the most delicate attention, that she ought to be imme- 
diately set at liberty and allowed to rejoin her husband. Such conduct 
appears to us so strictly obligatory, so much according to the order of things, 
and so conformable to our ideas and sentiments, that there certainly does 
not appear to us to be any peculiar merit in adopting it. We should say 
that the general had performed a strict and sacred duty, which he could not 
evade without covering himself with shame and ignominy. "We certainly 
should not immortalize such an action in history; we should allow it to pass 
unnoticed in the ordinary course of events. Now, this is what Scipio did with 
respect to the wife of Mardonius at the taking of Carthagena; and ancient 
history records this generosity as an eternal monument of his virtues. This 
parallel explains better than any commentary the immense progress of morality 
and public conscience under the influence of Christianity. Now, such conduct, 
which among us is considered as simple, natural, and strictly obligatory, does 
not flow from the honor belonging to monarchies, as Montesquieu asserts, but 
from more lofty notions of human dignity, from a clearer knowledge of the true 
state of society, from a morality the purer and more powerful because it is esta- 
blished on eternal foundations. This, indeed, is found and felt everywhere, it 
governs the good and is respected even by the bad ; this is what would stop the 
licentious man, who, in a case of this sort, would be inclined to indulge his 
cruelty or his other passions. The author of the Esprit des Lois would doubt- 
less have perceived these truths if he had not been prejudiced by the favorite 
distinction established at the beginning of his work, and which throughout 
bound him to an inflexible system. We know what a preconceived system is — 
one that serves as the mould for a work. Like the bed of Procrustus, ideas and 
facts, right or wrong, are accommodated to the system ; what is too much is 
taken away, and what is wanting is added. Thus Montesquieu finds in political 
motives, founded on the republican form of government, the reason for the 
power exercised over Roman women by their husbands. The cruel rights 
given to fathers over their children, the unlimited paternal power established 
by the Roman laws, also appeared to him to flow from political causes, as if it 
were not evident that these two regulations of the ancient Roman law were 
owing to causes purely domestic and social, altogether independent of the form 
of government. (^19) 



CHAPTER XXX. 

ON THE DIFFERENT INFLUENCE OF PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICITY ON 
THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE. 

We have denned the nature of public conscience ; we have pointed out its 
origin and effects. It now remains to examine whether Protestantism has had 
any share in forming it, and whether it is fairly entitled to the glory of having 
been of any service to European civilization on this point. We have already 
shown that the origin of this public conscience is to be found in Christianity. 
Now Christianity may be considered under two aspects — as a doctrine, and as 
an institution intended to realize that doctrine ; that is to say, Christian moral- 
ity may be considered in itself, or as taught and inculcated by the Church. To 
form the public conscience, and make Christian morality regulate it, it was not 
enough to announce this doctrine ; there was still required a society, not only 
to preserve it in all its purity, that it might be transmitted from generation to 
generation, but to preach it incessantly to man, and apply it continually to all 



166 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the acts of life. We must observe that ideas, however powerful they may be, 
have only a precarious existence until they are realized, and become embodied, 
as it were, in an institution which, while it is animated, moved, and guided by 
them, serves them as a rampart against the attacks of other ideas and other 
interests. Man is formed of body and soul ; the whole world is a collection of 
spiritual and corporeal beings — a system of moral and physical relations ; thus 
it is that all ideas, even the greatest and the loftiest, begin to fall into oblivion 
when they have no outward expression — no organ by which they make them- 
selves heard and respected. They are then confounded and overwhelmed amid 
the confusion of the world, and in the end disappear altogether. Therefore, all 
ideas that are to have a lasting influence on society, necessarily tend to create 
an institution to represent them, in which they may be personified ; not satisfied 
with addressing themselves to the mind, and with descending to practice by 
indirect means, they seek to give form to matter, they present themselves to the 
eyes of humanity in a palpable manner. These observations, which I submit 
with confidence to the judgment of sensible men, contain a condemnation of the 
Protestant system. So far from the pretended Reformation being able to claim 
any part in the salutary events which we are explaining, we should rather say 
that, by its principles and conduct, it would have been an obstacle in their way, 
if, as was happily the case, Europe had not been of adult age in the sixteenth 
century, and consequently almost incapable of losing the doctrines, feelings, 
habits, and tendencies which the Catholic Church had communicated to it during 
an education of so many centuries. Indeed, the first thing that Protestantism 
did was to attack authority, not by a mere act of resistance, but by proclaiming 
resistance to be a real right, by establishing private judgment as a dogma. From 
that moment Christian morality remained without support, for there was no 
longer a society which could claim the right of explaining and teaching it ; 
that is to say, it was reduced to the level of those ideas which, not being repre- 
sented or supported by an institution, and not having any authorized organ to 
explain them, possessed no direct means of acting on society, and had no means 
of protection when attacked. 

But I shall be told that Protestantism has preserved the institution which 
realizes this idea ; for it has preserved its ministers, worship, and preaching — 
in a word, all that truth requires in dealing with man. 

I will not deny that there is some truth in this, and I will repeat what I have 
not hesitated to affirm in the fourteenth chapter of this work, " That we ought 
to regard it as a great good, that the first Protestants, in spite of their desire to 
upset all the practices of the Church, have yet preserved that of preaching/ ' I 
added in the same place : " It is not necessary to deny on this account the evils 
produced at certain times by the declamation of some - ministers, either furious 
or fanatical ) but as unity was broken, and as the people had been hurried into 
the perilous path of schism, we say that it must have been very conducive to 
the preservation of the most important ideas concerning God and man, and the 
fundamental maxims of morality, for such truths to be frequently explained to 
the people by men who had long studied them in the Holy Scriptures." I repeat 
here what I there said : preaching practised among Protestants must have had 
very good effects ; but this only amounts to saying, that it did not do so much 
mischief as was to be feared from its own principles. On this point, they were 
like men of immoral opinions, who are not so bad as they would be, were their 
hearts in accordance with their minds : they had the good fortune to be incon- 
sistent. Protestantism had proclaimed the abolition of authority, and the right 
of private judgment without limit ; but in practice it did not quite act up to 
these doctrines. Thus, it devoted itself with ardor to what it called gospel 
preaching, and its ministers were called gospellers. So that, at the very time 
when they just established the principle that every individual had the free right 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



167 



of private judgment, and ought to be guided by reason or private inspiration 
alone, without listening to any external authority, Protestant ministers were seen 
spreading themselves everywhere, and claiming to be the legitimate organs of 
the divine word. 

The better to understand the strange nature of such a doctrine, we must re- 
member the maxims of Luther with respect to the priesthood. We know that 
this heresiarch, embarrassed by the hierarchy which constitutes the ministry 
of the Church, pretended to overturn it at one blow, by maintaining that all 
Christians are priests, and that, to exercise the sacred ministry, a simple ap- 
pointment is necessary, which adds nothing essential or characteristic to the 
quality of priests, which is the universal patrimony of all Christians. It follows 
from this doctrine, that the Protestant preacher wanting a mission is not distin- 
guished from other Christians by any characteristic ; he cannot, consequently, 
speak to them with any authority; he is not allowed, like Jesus Christ, to speak 
quasi potestatem habens (as having authority) ; he is nothing more than an orator 
who addresses the people with no other right than what he derives from his 
education, knowledge, or eloquence. 

This preaching without authority, which, in reality and according to the 
preacher's own principles, was only human, although it committed the glaring 
inconsistency of pretending to be divine, may, no doubt, have contributed some- 
thiDg to the preservation of good moral principles when they were already 
everywhere established ; but it would certainly have been unable to establish 
them in a society where they were unknown, especially if it had had to struggle 
with other principles directly opposed to it, and supported by ancient prejudices, 
by deeply rooted passions, and by strong interests. 

Yes, we repeat it, this preaching would have been unable to introduce its 
principles into such a society; unable to preserve them in safety amid the most 
alarming revolutions and the most unexampled catastrophes ; unable to impart 
them to barbarous nations, who, proud of their triumph, listened to no other 
voice than that of their ferocious instinct ; unable to make the conquerors and 
the conquered bow before these principles, to mould the most different nations 
into one people, by stamping on their laws, institutions, and manners the same 
seal, in order to form from them that admirable society, that assemblage of 
nations, or rather that one great nation, which is called Europe. In a word, 
Protestantism, from its very constitution, would have been incapable of realizing 
what the Catholic Church has done. 

Moreover, this attempted preaching preserved by Protestantism is, at bottom, 
an effort to imitate the Church, that it may not remain unarmed in the presence 
of so redoubtable an adversary. It required a means of influencing the people, 
— a channel open to communicate, at the will of each usurper of religious 
authority, different interpretations of the Bible ; this is the reason why, in spite 
of violent declamation against all that emanated from the chair of St. Peter, it 
preserved the valuable practice of preaching. 

But the best way to feel the inferiority of Protestantism in regard to the 
knowledge and comprehension of the means proper to extend and strengthen 
morality, and make it prevail in all the acts of life, is to observe, that it has 
interrupted all communication between the conscience of the faithful and the 
direction of the priest; it only leaves to the latter a general direction, which, 
owing to its being extended over all at the same time, is exerted with effect over 
none. If we confine ourselves to the consideration of the abolition of the sacra- 
ment of Penance among Protestants, we may rest assured that they have thereby 
given up one of the most legitimate, powerful, and gentle means of rendering 
human conduct conformable to the principles of sound morality. Its action is 
legitimate; for nothing can be more legitimate than direct and intimate com- 
munication between the conscience of man who is to be judged by Grod, and the 



168 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



conscience of the man who represents God on earth; — an action which is 
powerful, because this intimate communication, established between man and 
man, between soul and soul, identifies, as it were, the thoughts and affections; 
because, in the presence of God alone, to the exclusion of every other witness, 
admonitions have more force, precepts more authority, and advice more unction 
and sweetness to penetrate into the inmost soul; — an action full of gentleness, 
for it supposes the voluntary manifestation of the conscience which seeks 
guidance — a manifestation which is commanded, it is true, by authority, but 
which cannot be enforced by violence, as God alone is the judge of its sincerity ; 
— an action, I repeat, which is gentle, for the minister is compelled to the 
strictest secrecy; all imaginable precautions have been taken by the Church to 
prevent a betrayal, and man may rest with tranquillity in the assurance that 
the secrets of his conscience will never be revealed. 

But you will ask me, do you believe all this is necessary to establish and pre- 
serve a good state of morality ? If morality is to be any thing more than a 
mere worldly probity, which is exposed to destruction at the first shock of 
interest, or easily seduced by the passions ; if it is to be a morality delicate, 
strict, and profound, extending over all the acts of life, guiding and ruling the 
heart of man, and transforming it into that beau ideal which we admire in Ca- 
tholics who are really devoted to the observances and practices of their religion ; 
if this is the morality which you mean, it is necessary, undoubtedly, that, 
placed under the inspection of religious authority, it should be directed and 
guided by a minister of the sanctuary, by a faithful communication of the secrets 
of our hearts and the numberless temptations which continually assail our weak 
nature. This is the doctrine of the Catholic Church ; and I will add, that it is 
pointed out by experience and taught by philosophy. I do not mean to say, 
that Catholics alone are capable of performing virtuous actions; this would be 
to contradict the experience of every day. I only wish to prove the efficacy of 
a Catholic institution which is despised by Protestants. I speak of the great 
influence which this institution has in infusing into our hearts, and preserving 
in them, a morality which is cordial, constant, and applicable to all the acts of 
our souls. 

No doubt, there is in man a monstrous mixture of good and evil ; I know 
that it is not given him to attain in this life to that ineffable degree of perfec- 
tion which consists in a perfect conformity with Divine truth and holiness — a 
perfection which he will not be able even to conceive until the moment when, 
stripped of his mortal body, he will be plunged into the pure ocean of light and 
love. But we cannot be permitted to doubt that man, in this earthly abode, in 
the land of misery and darkness, can, nevertheless, attain to the universal, 
delicate, and profound state of morality which I have just described; and, 
however much the present corruption of the world may be a too legitimate sub- 
ject of affliction, it must be allowed that we still find, in our own days, a con- 
siderable number of honorable exceptions in the multitude of persons who 
conform to the strict rule of gospel morality in their conduct, their wishes, and 
even in their thoughts and inmost affections. To attain to this degree of 
morality (and observe, I do not say of evangelical perfection, but of mere 
morality), it is necessary that the religious principle should be visibly present 
to the eyes of the soul, that it should act continually upon her, urging on or 
restraining her in an infinite variety of circumstances which, in the course of 
life, occur to mislead from the path of duty. The life of man is, as it were, a 
chain composed of an infinite variety of acts, which cannot be constantly in 
accordance with reason and the eternal law, unless it remains constantly in the 
hands of a fixed and universal regulator. And let it not be said that such a 
state of morality is a beau ideal, the existence of which would bring such con- 
fusion into the acts of the soul, and complication of the whole life, as in the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



169 



end to make it insupportable. No, this is not a mere fancy; it is a reality 
which is frequently seen by our eyes, not only in the cloister and the sanctuary, 
but amid the confusion and distractions of the world. That which establishes a 
fixed rule cannot bring confusion into the acts of the soul, or complicate the 
affairs of life. Quite the contrary; instead of confusion, it serves to distinguish 
and illuminate; instead of complicating, it puts in order and simplifies. Esta- 
blish this rule, and you will have unity; and with unity general order. 

Catholicity is always distinguished by its extreme vigilance with respect to 
morality, by its care in regulating all the acts of life, and even the most secret 
movements of the heart. Superficial observers have declaimed against the 
prolixity of moralists — against the minute and detailed study which they make 
of human actions considered under a moral aspect; they should have observed, 
that if Catholicity is the religion in the bosom of which has appeared so great a 
number of moralists, by whom all human actions have been examined in the 
greatest detail, it is because this religion has for its object to moralize for the 
whole man, as it were, in all his relations with Glod, with his neighbor, and 
with himself. It is clear that such an enterprise requires a more profound and 
attentive examination than would be necessary, if it had only to give to man an 
imperfect morality, stopping at the surface of actions, and not penetrating to 
the bottom of the heart. With respect to Catholic moralists, and without 
attempting to excuse the excess into which some among them have fallen, 
either by too great subtility, or by a spirit of party and dispute (excesses which 
cannot be imputed to the Catholic Church, since she has testified her displeasure 
when she has not expressly condemned them), it must be observed, that this 
abundance, this superfluity, if you will, of moral studies, has contributed more 
than people think to direct minds to the intimate study of man, by furnishing a 
multitude of facts and observations to those who have subsequently wished to 
devote themselves to this important science. Now, can there be a more worthy 
or more useful object for our labors ? In another part of this work, I propose 
to develope the relations of Catholicity with the progress of science and litera- 
ture ; I shall not, therefore, enter more fully on the matter now. Still I may 
be allowed briefly to observe, that the development and education of the human 
mind have been principally theological ; and that on this point, as well as on 
many others, philosophers are more indebted to theologians than they seem to 
imagine. 

Let us return to the comparison of the Protestant and Catholic influence on 
the formation and preservation of a sound public conscience. We have showed 
that Catholicity, having constantly maintained the principle of authority which 
Protestantism rejects, has given to moral ideas a force and influence which Pro- 
testantism could not. Protestantism, indeed, by its nature and fundamental 
principles, has never given to these ideas any other support than they might 
have derived from a school of philosophy. But you will perhaps ask me, do 
you not acknowledge the force of these ideas ; a force peculiar to them, and 
inherent in their nature, and which frequently changes the face of the world, by 
deciding its doctrines ? Do you not know that they always, in the end, force a 
passage, in spite of every obstacle, and of all resistance ? Have you forgotten 
the teaching of all history ; and do you pretend to deprive human thought of 
that vital, creative force, which renders man superior to all that surrounds him ? 
Such is the common panegyric on the strength of ideas ; thus we see them 
transformed every moment into all-powerful beings, whose magical wand is 
capable of changing every thing at their pleasure. 

However this may be, I am full of respect for human thought, and allow 
that there is much truth in what is called the force of an idea ; yet I must beg 
leave to offer a few observations to these enthusiasts, not directly to combat their 
opinion, but to make some necessary modifications. In the first place, ideas, in 
22 P 



170 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the point of view in which we are now considering them, must be divided into 
two orders ; some flattering our passions, the others checking them. It cannot 
be denied that the former have an immense expansive force. They have a 
motion of their own ; they act in all places j they exert a rapid, violent power ; 
one would say that they overflow with life and activity. The latter have great 
difficulty in making their way ; they advance slowly, they cannot pursue their 
career without an institution to secure their stability. And why ? Because it 
is not the ideas themselves which act in the former case, but the passions which 
accompany them, and assume their names ; thus masking what is repulsive in 
them at first sight. In the latter case, on the contrary, it is the truth that 
speaks. Now, in this land of misfortune, the truth is but little attended to j for 
it leads to good ; and the heart of man, as the Scripture says, is inclined to evil 
from his youth. Those who vaunt so much the native force of ideas, should 
point out to us, in ancient or modern history, one idea which, without going out 
of its own circle, that of the purely philosophical order, is entitled to the glory 
of having materially contributed to the amelioration of individuals and society. 

It is commonly said that the force of ideas is immense ; that once shown 
among men, they will fructify sooner or later ; that once deposited in the bosom 
of humanity, they will remain there as a precious legacy, and contribute won- 
derfully to the improvement of the world, to the perfection towards which the 
human race advances. No doubt these assertions contain some truth; as man 
is an intelligent being, all that immediately affects his mind must certainly 
influence his destiny. Thus no great change is worked in society without being 
first realized in the order of ideas ; all that is established contrary to our ideas, 
or without them, must be weak and passing. But it is by no means to be sup- 
posed that every useful idea contains in itself a conservative force capable of 
dispensing with all institutions; that is to say, with support and defence, 
even during times of social disorder : between these two propositions there is a 
gulf which cannot be closed without contradicting all history. Now humanity, 
considered by itself, and given up to its own strength, as it appears to philoso- 
phers, is not so safe a depositary as people wish to suppose. Unhappily we 
have melancholy proofs of this truth : we see too clearly that the human race, 
far from being a faithful trustee, has but too much imitated the conduct of a 
foolish spendthrift. In the cradle of the human race, we find great ideas on the 
unity of God, on man, on relations of man with God and their fellow-men. 
These ideas were certainly true, salutary, and fruitful : and yet, what did man 
do with them ? Did he not lose them by modifying, mutilating, and distorting 
them in the most deplorable way ? Where were they when J esus Christ came 
into the world ? What had humanity done with them ? One nation alone 
preserved them ; but in what way ? Fix your attention on the chosen people, 
the Jews, and you will see that there was a continual struggle between truth 
and error ; you will see that, by an inconceivable blindness, they incessantly 
inclined to idolatry ; they had a constant tendency to substitute the abominations 
of the Gentiles for the sublime law of Mount Sinai. And do you know how the 
truth was preserved among this people ? Observe it well ; it was supported by 
the strongest institutions that can be imagined ; it was armed with all the means 
of defence with which an inspired legislator could surround it. It will be said 
that they were a hard-hearted nation, in the language of the Scriptures j unhap- 
pily, since the fall of our first parent, this hardness of heart is become the patri- 
mony of humanity ; the heart of man is inclined to evil from his youth ; ages 
before the existence of the Jews, God had covered the earth with the waters of 
heaven, and had blotted out man from the face of the world ; for all flesh had cor- 
rupted its way. We must conclude from this, that the preservation of great moral 
ideas requires powerful institutions ; it is evident, therefore, that they cannot be 
abandoned to the fickleness of the human mind without being disfigured, or even 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



171 



lost. I will say, moreover, that institutions are not only necessary to teach, but 
also to apply them. Moral ideas, especially those which openly contradict the 
passions, are never reduced to practice without great efforts; now the ideas 
themselves do not suffice to make these great efforts, and means of action are 
required capable of connecting ideas with facts ; this is one of the reasons of the 
impotence of philosophical schools when they attempt to construct any thing. 
They are often powerful in destroying ; momentary action is enough for this, 
and this action may be easily acquired in a moment of enthusiasm. But when 
they wish to establish and reduce their conceptions to practice, they are impo- 
tent ; their only resource is what is called the force of ideas. Now, as ideas 
constantly vary and change — an inconstancy of which these schools themselves 
afford the first example — it happens that what we hear them announce one mo- 
ment as an infallible means of human progress, is the next reduced to a mere 
object of curiosity. 

These last observations anticipate the objection that may be urged against us 
with respect to the immense force which printing has given to ideas. But this 
is so far from being a preserver, that it may be said to be the best destroyer of 
all opinions. If we measure the immense orbit which the human mind has 
passed through since that important discovery, we shall see that the consum- 
mation of opinions (if I may be allowed the expression) is increased in a pro- 
digious degree. The history of the human race, especially since the press has 
become periodical, appears to be the representation of a rapid drama, where the 
decorations change every moment, where the scenes succeed each other, scarcely 
allowing the spectator to catch any of the author's words. Half of this century 
has not yet passed away, and already it seems as if many centuries had elapsed, 
so great has been the number of schools which have been born and are dead, 
of reputations which, after being raised to the highest pitch of renown, have 
been soon forgotten. This rapid succession of ideas, so far from contributing to 
increase their force, necessarily renders them weak and unproductive. The na- 
tural order in the progress of ideas is this : at first to make their appearance, 
then to be realized in an institution representing them, and in fine to exert their 
influence on facts by means of an institution in which they are personified. 
Now, it is necessary that during these transformations, which essentially require 
time, ideas should preserve their credit, if they are to produce any favorable 
result. But when they succeed each other too rapidly, time is wanting for their 
successive transformations ; new ideas strive to discredit the old ones, and con- 
sequently to render them useless. This is the reason why the strength of ideas, 
that is, of philosophy, was never so little to be relied on as now, to produce 
any thing durable and consistent in the moral order : in this respect, the gain to 
modern society may well be questioned. More is conceived, but less matured ; 
what the mind gains in extent, it loses in depth, and the pretension in theory 
makes a sad contrast with the impotence of practice. Of what importance is it 
that our predecessors were not so ready as we are in improvising a discussion on 
great social and political questions, if they nevertheless organized and founded 
such admirable institutions ? The architects who raised the astonishing monu- 
ments of ages which we call barbarous, were certainly not so learned or so culti- 
vated as those of our time ; and yet who has the boldness even to commence 
what they have finished ? Thus it is in the social and political order. Let us 
remember that great thoughts are produced rather by intuition than by reason- 
ing ; in practice, success depends more upon the invaluable quality called tact, 
than upon enlightened reflection; and experience often teaches that he who 
knows much, sees little. The genius of Plato would not have been the best 
guide for Solon or Lycurgus ; and all the knowledge of Cicero would not have 
succeeded in doing what was done by the tact and good sense of two unlettered 
men like Romulus and Numa. (20) 



172 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

ON GENTLENESS OP MANNERS IN GENERAL. 

A certain general gentleness of manners, which in war prevents great atro- 
cities, and in peace renders life more quiet and agreeable : — such is one of the 
valuable qualities which I have pointed out as forming the distinguishing cha- 
racteristics of European civilization. This is a fact which does not require 
proof ; we see and feel it everywhere when we look around ; it is evident to all 
who open the pages of history, and compare our times with any others. Wherein 
does this gentleness of manners in modern times consist ? what is the cause of 
it ? what has favoured it ? what has opposed it ? These interesting questions 
directly apply to our present subject; for they lead straight to the examination 
of other questions, such as the following : has Catholicity contributed in any 
way to this gentleness of manners ; or, on the other hand, has it opposed or 
retarded it? in fine, what part has Protestantism played in the work, for good 
or evil ? First of all, we must determine wherein gentleness of manners con- 
sists. Although we have here to deal with an idea which every one sees, or 
rather feels, we must still endeavor to explain and analyze it by a definition as 
complete and exact as possible. Gentleness of manners consists in the absence 
of force; so that manners will be more or less gentle according as force is less 
or more employed. Thus, we must not confound gentle with charitable man- 
ners ) the latter work good, the former only exclude the idea of force. We 
must also distinguish gentle manners from those that are pure, and conformable 
to reason and justice. Immorality is often gentle, when, instead of resorting to 
force, it makes use of seduction and stratagem. This gentleness of manners 
consists in directing the human mind, not by violence which constrains the body, 
but by reasons which address themselves to the intellect, or by appeals to the 
passions. Thus it is that gentle manners are not always under the influence of 
reason ; but their rule is always intellectual, although they are often made the 
slaves of the passions by golden chains of their own formation. 

If gentleness of manners consists in not making use, in human transactions, 
of other means than those of conviction, persuasion, or seduction, it is clear 
that the most advanced society — that is, that in which intelligence has been 
most developed — should always participate more or less in this social advan- 
tage. There the mind rules, because it is strong ; while material force disap- 
pears, because the body has less strength. Moreover, in societies very much 
advanced, where relations and interests are necessarily much multiplied, there 
is an indispensable want of means capable of acting in a universal and lasting 
manner, and applicable to all the details of life. These means are, unquestion- 
ably, moral and intellectual : the mind operates without destruction, while force 
dashes violently against obstacles, and breaks itself to pieces, if it cannot over- 
turn them. Thus it is the cause of continual commotions, which cannot subsist 
in a society which has numerous and complicated relations, without throwing 
into confusion and destroying society itself. 

We always observe in young nations a lamentable abuse of force. Nothing 
is more natural : the passions ally themselves with force, because they resemble 
it ; they are energetical as violence, and rude as its shocks. When society has 
reached a great degree of development, the passions are divorced from force, and 
become allied with the intelligence ; they cease to be violent, in order to become 
artful. In the first case, if it is the people who struggle, they make war on, 
they contend with, and destroy each other ; in the second case, they contend 
with the arms of industry, commerce, and contraband. Governments attack, 
in the first case, by arms and invasions ; and in the second by diplomacy. In 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



173 



the first epoch, warriors are every thing ; in the second, they are nothing ; they 
have not a very important part to play when negotiation, and not fighting, is 
required. When we look at ancient civilization, we observe a remarkable dif- 
ference between the character of its manners and the gentleness of ours. Neither 
the Greeks nor Romans ever regarded this precious quality in the light in which 
we regard it, for the honor of European civilization. Those nations became ener- 
vated, but they did not become gentle ; we may say that their manners were 
made effeminate, but they were not softened ; for we see them make use of 
force on all occasions, when neither vigor of body nor energy of mind was 
required. There is nothing more worthy of observation than this peculiarity of 
ancient civilization, especially of that of Rome. Now this phenomenon, which 
at first sight appears to us to be very strange, has very deep causes. Besides 
the principal of these causes, which is, the want of an element of civilization 
such as that which modern nations have had in Christian charity, we shall find 
among the ancients, if we descend to the details of their social organization, 
certain causes which necessarily hindered this gentleness of manners being 
established among them. 

In the first case, slavery, one of the constituent elements of their social and 
domestic organization, was an eternal obstacle to the introduction of this pre- 
cious quality. The man who has the power of throwing another to the fishes, 
and of punishing with death the crime of breaking a glass j he who during a 
feast, to gratify his caprice, can take away the life of one of his brethren ; he 
who can rest upon a voluptuous couch, surrounded by the most sumptuous mag- 
nificence, while he knows that hundreds of men, crowded together in dark vaults, 
work incessantly for his cupidity and his pleasures ; he who can hear without 
emotion the lamentations of a crowd of unhappy beings imploring a morsel of 
bread to pass through the night's misery which is to unite their labors and 
fatigues of the evening with those of the morning, such a man may have effe- 
minate, but he cannot have gentle manners ; his heart may become enervated, 
but it will not cease to be cruel. This was precisely the situation of the free 
man in ancient society : the organization of which we have just stated the results 
was regarded as indispensable ; they could not even conceive the possibility of 
any other order of things. What removed this obstacle ? was it not the Catholic 
Church, by abolishing slavery, after having ameliorated the cruel lot of slaves ? 
Those who revert to the 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th chapters of this work, 
with the notes appended to them, will find the truth of this demonstrated by 
incontestable reasons and documents. 

In the second place, the right of life and death, given by the laws to the 
paternal power, introduced into families an element of severity which could not 
but produce injurious effects. Happily, the hearts of fathers were continually 
contending against the power thus granted by law : but if this feeling did not 
prevent some deeds the perusal of which makes us shudder, must we not sup- 
pose that, in the ordinary course of life, cruel scenes constantly reminded the 
members of families of this atrocious right with which the chief was invested ? 
Will not he who is possessed of the power of killing with impunity, be fre- 
quently hurried into acts of cruel despotism ? Now this tyrannical extension 
of the rights of paternal authority, carried far beyond the limits pointed out by 
nature, was taken away by the force of laws and manners which were much 
aided by the influence of Catholicity (see the 24th chap, of this work). To the 
two causes which I have just pointed out, may be added another perfectly analo- 
gous, viz. the despotism which the husband exercised over his wife, and the 
little respect which was paid to her. Public spectacles were, among the Romans, 
another element of severity and cruelty. What could be expected of a people 
whose principal amusement is to look coolly upon homicide — who took pleasure 



174 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



in witnessing the slaughter in the arena of hundreds of men fighting against 
each other, or against wild beasts ? 

As a Spaniard, I feel called upon here to insert a paragraph, in reply to the 
observations which will be made against me on this point : I allude to the 
Spanish bull-fights. I shall naturally be asked, Is it not in a Christian and 
Catholic country that the custom of making men fight against animals is pre- 
served ? The objection, however plausible it may seem, can be answered. In 
the first place, to avoid any misunderstanding, I declare that this popular amuse- 
ment is, in my opinion, barbarous, and ought, if possible, to be completely 
extirpated. But after this full and explicit avowal, let me be permitted to make 
a few observations, to screen the honor of my country. In the first place, it 
must be remarked, that there is in the human heart a secret taste for risks and 
dangers ; in order to make an adventure interesting, it is necessary that the hero 
should be encompassed with great and multiplied perils ; if a history is to excite 
curiosity to a high degree, it must not be an uninterrupted chain of peaceful 
and happy events. We wish to find ourselves frequently in the presence of 
extraordinary and surprising facts ; and, however unpleasant may be the avowal, 
our hearts, while they feel the tenderest compassion for the unfortunate, seem 
to require the contemplation of scenes of a more violent and exciting character. 
Hence the taste for tragedies: hence the love of scenes in which the actors 
incur great risks, in appearance or in reality. It is not my duty here to ex- 
plain the origin of this phenomenon ; it is enough for me here to point out its 
existence — to show foreigners who accuse us of being barbarians, that the taste 
of the Spanish people for bull-fights is only the application to a particular case, 
of an inclination inherent everywhere in the heart of man. Those who, with 
respect to this custom of the Spanish people, affect so much humanity, would 
do well to answer the following questions : To what is owing the pleasure taken 
by the multitude in every exhibition, when the actors run any risk in one way 
or another ? Whence comes it that all would willingly be present at the 
bloodiest battle, if they could do so without danger ? Whence comes it that 
everywhere an immense multitude assembles to witness the agonies and the last 
convulsions of a criminal on the gibbet ? Whence comes it, in fine, that foreign- 
ers, when at Madrid, render themselves accomplices in the barbarity of Spa- 
niards by assisting at these bull-fights ? I say this, not in any degree to ex- 
cuse a custom which appears to me to be unworthy of a civilized people, but to 
show that in this point, as well as in almost all that relates to the Spanish peo- 
ple, there are exaggerations which ought to be reduced within reasonable limits. 
Let us add an important observation, which is the best excuse that can be made 
for this reprehensible exhibition : instead of fixing our attention on the specta- 
cle itself, let us consider the evils that flow from it. Now, I ask, how many 
men die in Spain in bull-fights ? The number is extremely small, and alto- 
gether insignificant in proportion to the frequency of these spectacles \ so that 
if a comparison were made between the accidents which occur in consequence 
of this amusement and those that happen in other sports, such as horse-races 
and others of the same kind, we should perhaps find that bull-fights, however 
barbarous they may be in themselves, still do not deserve all the anathemas 
with which foreigners have loaded them. To return to our principal object, 
how, we ask, is it possible to compare an amusement which, perhaps, may not 
cost the life of one man during many years, to those terrible shows in which 
death was a necessary condition for the pleasure of the spectators ? After the 
triumph of Trajan over the Dacians, the public games lasted twenty-three days, 
and the fearful number of six thousand gladiators was slain. Such were the amuse- 
ments at Rome, not only of the populace, but of the highest classes ; such were the 
horrible spectacles required by a people who added voluptuousness to the most 
atrocious cruelty. This is a most convincing proof of what I have said, viz. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITII CATHOLICITY. 



175 



that manners may be effeminate without being gentle, and that the brutality 
of unbounded luxury is not inconsistent with the instinct of blood-thirsty 
ferocity. 

It is impossible that such spectacles should be tolerated among modern na- 
tions, however corrupt their manners may be. The principle of charity has 
extended its empire too universally for such excesses to be renewed. This 
charity, it is true, does not induce men to do all the good to each other that 
they ought ; but, at least, it prevents their coldly perpetrating evil, and assist- 
ing quietly at the slaughter of their brethren to gratify the pleasure of the 
moment. Christianity, at its birth, cast into society the seed of this aversion 
to homicide. Who is not aware of the repugnance of Christians for the shows 
of the Gentiles — a repugnance prescribed and kept alive by the admonitions of 
the early pastors of the Church ? It was an acknowledged fact, that Christian 
charity prohibited the being present at games where homicide formed part of 
the spectacle. " As for us," said one of the apologists of the early ages, " we make 
little difference between committing murder and seeing it committed." (21) 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE IMPROVEMENT OF MANNERS BY THE ACTION OF THE CHURCH. 

Modern society ought, it would seem, to be distinguished for severity and 
cruelty, since it was formed from that of the Romans and barbarians, from both 
of whom it should have inherited these qualities. Who is not aware of the fierce 
manners of the northern barbarians? The historians of that time have left us 
statements that make us shudder when we read them. It was believed that the 
end of the world was at hand ; and, indeed, it was excusable to consider the last 
catastrophe as near, when so many other melancholy ones had already been 
heaped upon humanity. The imagination cannot figure to itself what would 
have happened to the world at this crisis, if Christianity had not existed. Even 
supposing that society would have been organized anew under one form or 
another, it is certain that private and public relations would have remained in a 
state of lamentable disorder, and that legislation would have been unjust and 
inhuman. Thus the influence of the Church on civil legislation was an inesti- 
mable benefit ; thus even the power of the clergy in temporal things was one 
of the greatest safeguards of the highest interests of society. 

Attacks are often made upon this temporal power of the clergy and this in- 
fluence of the Church in worldly affairs. But, in the first place, it should be 
remembered, that this power and influence were brought about by the very 
nature of things ; that is to say, they were natural, and, consequently, to assail 
them is to declaim in vain against the force of events, of which no man could 
hinder the realization. This power and influence, besides, were legitimate ; for 
when society is in danger, nothing can be more legitimate than that that which 
can save it should save it. Now, at the time we speak of, the Church alone 
could save society. The Church, which is not an abstract being, but a real and 
substantial society, acted upon civil society by real and substantial means. If 
the purely material interests of society were in question, the minister of the 
Church ought, in some way or other, to take part in the direction of those 
interests. These reflections are so natural and simple, that their truth must be 
seen by good sense. All those who know any thing of history are now gene- 
rally agreed on this point ; and if we are not aware how much it generally 
costs the human mind to enter upon the path of truth, and, above all, how 
much bad faith there has been in the examination of these questions, we 
shall have a difficulty in understanding that so much time should have been 



176 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



required to bring the world to agree on a thing which is apparent to those 
who read history. But let us return to our subject. This extraordinary 
mixture of the cruelty of a cultivated but corrupted people with the atrocious 
ferocity of a barbarous one, proud of its triumphs, and intoxicated with 
blood during long wars, placed in European society a germ of severity and 
cruelty which fermented there for ages, and the remains of which we find 
at a late period. The precept of Christian charity was in men's heads, but 
Roman cruelty and barbarian ferocity still prevailed in their hearts; ideas 
were pure and beneficent, since they proceeded from a religion of love, but they 
encountered a terrible resistance in the habits, manners, institutions, and laws, 
for all these were more or less disfigured by the two mixed principles which I 
have just pointed out. If we reflect upon the constant and obstinate struggle 
between the Catholic Church and the elements which contended with her, we 
shall clearly see that Christian ideas could never have prevailed in legislation 
and manners, if Christianity had been a religious idea abandoned to human 
caprice, as Protestants imagine ; it was necessary for it to be realized in a pow- 
erful institution, in a strongly constituted society, such as we find in the Catho- 
lic Church. In order to give an idea of the efforts made by the Church, I will 
point out some of the regulations which she made for the purpose of improving 
manners. Private animosities were very violent at the time of which we speak ; 
and right was decided by force, and the world was threatened with becoming the 
patrimony of the strongest. Public law did not exist, or was hurried away and 
confounded by outrages which its feeble hand could never prevent or repress ; 
it was altogether powerless in rendering manners pacific, and in subjecting men 
to reason and justice. Then we see that the Church, besides the instruction 
and the general admonitions inseparable from her sacred mission, adopted at 
that time certain measures calculated to restrain the torrent of violence which 
ravaged and destroyed every thing. The Council of Aries, celebrated in the 
middle of the fifth century, between 443 and 452, ordains, in its 50th canon, 
that the Church should be interdicted to those who have public animosities, 
until they were reconciled. The Council of Angers, celebrated in 453, pro- 
scribes, by its 3d canon, acts of violence and mutilation. The Council of Agde, 
in Languedoc, celebrated in 506, ordains, in its 31st canon, that enemies who 
would not be reconciled should be admonished by the priests, and excommuni- 
cated if they did not follow their apostolical counsels. 

The Franks at that time had the custom of going armed, and they always 
entered the churches with their arms. It will be understood that such a custom 
must have produced great evils ; the house of prayer was often converted into 
an arena of blood and vengeance. In the middle of the seventh century, the 
Council of Chalons-sur-Saone, in its 17th canon, pronounces excommunication 
against all laymen who excite tumults, or draw their swords to strike any one 
in the churches or in their precincts. Thus, we see the prudence and foresight 
which dictated the 29th canon of the third Council of Orleans, celebrated in 
538, which forbids any one to be present at mass or vespers, armed. It is 
curious to observe the uniformity of design and plan pursued by the Church. 
In countries the most distant from each other, and at times when communica- 
tion could not be frequent, we find regulations analogous to those which we 
have pointed out. The Council of Lerida, held in 546, ordains, by its 7th 
canon, that he who shall have sworn not to be reconciled with his enemy, shall 
be deprived of the participation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ until he 
has done penance for his oath and been reconciled. 

Centuries passed away, acts of violence continued, the precept of fraternal 
charity, which obliges us to love even our enemies, always met with open 
resistance in the harsh character and fierce passions of the descendants of the 
barbarians; but the Church did not cease to preach the divine command; she 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



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continually inculcated and labored to render it efficacious by means of spiritual 
penalties. More than four hundred years had elapsed since the celebration of 
the Council of Aries, where we have seen the church forbidden to those who 
were openly at variance; we then see the Council of Worms, held in 868, pro- 
nouncing, in its 41st canon, excommunication against enemies who refused to 
be reconciled. It will suffice to have some idea of the disorders of that time, 
to know whether it was possible to appease the violence of animosities during 
this long period. One would fancy that the Church would have been wearied 
of inculcating a precept which the unhappy state of circumstances so often 
rendered fruitless; but such was not the case: she continued to speak as she 
had spoken for ages; she never lost her confidence that her words would pro- 
duce fruit in the present, and would be productive in the future. Such is her 
system; one would think that she heard these words constantly repeated, "Cry 
out, cry out without ceasing; raise thy voice like a trumpet." It is then that she 
triumphs over all resistance; when she cannot exert her power over the will of a 
nation, she makes her voice heard with indefatigable diligence in the sanctuary. 
There she assembles seven thousand who have not bent the knee to Baal; and 
while she endeavors to confirm them in faith and good works, she protests, in 
the name of G-od, against those who resist the Holy Spirit. Let us imagine 
that, amid the dissipation and distraction of a populous city, we enter a sacred 
place, where seriousness and moderation reign, in the bosom of silence and 
religious retirement; there a minister of the sanctuary, surrounded by a chosen 
number of the faithful, utters from time to time some serious and solemn words. 
This is the personification of the Church in times disastrous from weakened 
faith and corrupted morals. One of the rules of conduct of the Catholic Church 
has been, not to bend before the powerful. When she has proclaimed a law, 
she has proclaimed it for all, without distinction of rank. In the time of the 
power of those petty tyrants, who, under different names, persecuted the people, 
this conduct of the Church contributed in an extraordinary degree to render the 
ecclesiastical laws popular; for nothing was more likely to make a law tolerable 
to the people than to show that it applied to nobles, and even to kings. In the 
times of which we speak, hatred and violence among plebeians were severely 
proscribed; but the same law extended to great men and to royalty. A short 
time after the establishment of Christianity in England, we find a very curious 
example in that country, applicable to this question. It is nothing less than 
excommunication pronounced against three kings in the same year, and in the 
same town; all these were compelled by the Councils to do penance for the 
crimes which they had committed. The town of Llandaff, in Wales, within the 
metropolitan see of Canterbury, witnessed the celebration of three Councils, in 
the year 560. In the first, Monric, king of Glamorgan, was excommunicated 
for having put to death King Cinetha, although he had sworn the peace on the 
sacred relics; in the second, King Morcant was excommunicated for having 
put to death Friac, his uncle, in whose favor he had equally sworn the peace ; 
in the third, King Gruidnert was excommunicated for having put to death his 
brother, the competitor for the throne. 

Thus, these barbarian chiefs, just changed into kings, and prone to slaughter, 
are compelled to acknowledge the authority of a superior power, and to expiate 
by penance the murder of their relatives and the violation of sacred engage- 
ments ; it is useless to point out how much this must have contributed to the 
improvement of manners. "It was easy," the enemies of the Church will say 
— those who endeavor to lower the merit of her acts — "it was easy to preach 
gentleness of manners, to impose the observance of divine precepts on chiefs 
whose power was limited, and who had only the name of kings ; it was easy to 
manage those petty barbarian chiefs, who, rendered fanatical by a religion of 
which they understood nothing, humbly bowed before the first priest who ven- 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



tured to menace them on the part of God. But of what importance was that? 
What influence could it have on the course of great events? The history of 
European civilization presents a vast theatre, where events must be studied on 
a large scale, and where none but the most important scenes exercised any 
influence on the spirit of nations." Let us observe, that these petty barbarian 
kings were the origin of the principal families which now occupy the most im- 
portant thrones of the world. To place the germ of real civilization in their 
hearts, was to graft the tree which was one day to overshadow the earth. But 
without staying to show the futility of such reasoning, and as our opponents 
desire great scenes capable of influencing European manners on a large scale, 
let us open the history of the Church in the first ages, and we shall soon find a 
page which redounds to the eternal honor of Catholicity. The whole of the 
known world was subject to an emperor, whose name, then universally vene- 
rated, will continue to be respected by the remotest posterity. In an important 
city, the rebellious inhabitants put to death the commander of the garrison; the 
emperor, transported with anger, orders them to be exterminated. Returning 
to himself, he revokes the order; but it was too late, the order was executed, 
and thousands of victims had been involved in the horrible carnage; at the 
news of this dreadful catastrophe, a bishop quits the court of the emperor, 
leaves the city, and writes to him in this grave language: "I dare not offer the 
sacrifice if you attempt to be present at it; the blood of one innocent person 
would suffice to forbid me; how much more the massacre of a large number. " 
The emperor, confident in his power, takes no notice of this letter, and goes 
towards the church. When he arrives at the door, he finds himself in the pre- 
sence of a venerable man, who, with a grave and stern countenance, stops him 
and forbids him to enter the church. "Thou hast imitated David in crime/' 
he says, "imitate him also in penance." The emperor yields, humbles himself, 
and submits to the regulations of the bishop, and religion and humanity gain 
an immortal triumph. This unhappy city was Thessalonica ; the emperor was 
Theodosius ; the prelate was St. Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan. 

We find face to face, in this sublime fact, force and justice personified. 
Justice triumphs over force ; but why ? Because he who represents justice, 
represents it in the name of Heaven; because the sacred vestments and the 
imposing attitude of the man who stops the emperor reminds Theodosius of the 
divine mission of the holy bishop, and of the office which he holds in the sacred 
ministry. Put a philosopher in the place of the bishop, and tell him to arrest 
the proud culprit by an injunction of doing penance, and you will see whether 
human wisdom can do as much as the Catholic priest speaking in the name of 
God. Put, if you please, a bishop of the Church, who has acknowledged spi- 
ritual supremacy in the civil power, and you will see whether in his mouth 
words have the same effect in obtaining so glorious a triumph. The spirit of 
the Church was always the same ; her arms were always directed towards the 
same end ; her language was always equally strict, equally strong, whether she 
spoke to the Roman plebeian or a barbarian, whether she addressed her admoni- 
tions to a patrician of the empire or to a noble German. She was no more 
afraid of the purple of the Caesars than of the frowns of the long-haired kings. 
The power which she possessed during the middle ages was not exclusively 
owing to her having preserved alone the light of science and the principles of 
government ; but it was also owing to the invincible firmness, which no resist- 
ance and no attack could destroy. What would Protestantism have effected in 
such difficult and dangerous circumstances? Without authority, without a 
centre of action, without security for her own faith, without confidence in her 
resources, what means would she have had to assist her in restraining the tor- 
rent of violence — that impetuous torrent, which, after having inundated the 
world, was about to destroy the remains of ancient civilization, and opposed to 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



179 



all attempts at social reorganization an obstacle almost insurmountable? 
Catholicity, with its ardent faith, its powerful authority, its undivided unity, 
its well-compacted hierarchy, was able to undertake the lofty enterprise of im- 
proving manners ; and it brought to the undertaking that constancy which is 
inspired by conscious strength, and that boldness which animates a mind secure 
of triumph. 

We must not, however, imagine that the conduct of the Church, in her mis- 
sion of improving manners, always brought her into collision with force. We 
also see her employ indirect means, limit her demands to what she could obtain, 
and ask for as little, in order to obtain as much as possible. In a capitulary 
of Charlemagne, given at Aix-la-Chapelle in 813, and consisting of twenty-six 
articles, which are nothing more than a sort of confirmation and resume of the 
five Councils held a little before in France, we find in an appendix of two arti- 
cles the method of proceeding judicially against those who, under pretext of the 
right called faida, excited tumults on Sundays, holidays, and also working 
days. We have already seen above that they had recourse to the holy relics, 
to give greater authority to the oaths of peace and friendship taken by kings 
towards each other — an august act, in which Heaven was invoked to prevent 
the effusion of blood, and to establish peace on earth. We see in the capitulary 
which we have just quoted, that the respect for Sundays and holidays was made 
use of to bring about the abolition of the barbarous custom, which authorized 
the relations of a murdered man to avenge his death in the blood of the murderer. 
The deplorable state of European society at that time is vividly painted by the 
means which the ecclesiastical power was compelled to use, to diminish in some 
degree the disasters occasioned by the prevailing violence. Not to attack, not 
to maltreat any one, not to have recourse to force to obtain reparation or to 
gratify a desire of vengeance, appears to us to be so just, so reasonable, and so 
natural, that we can hardly imagine another way of acting. If, now, a law 
were promulgated, to forbid one to attack one's enemy on such or such a day, 
at such or such an hour, it would appear to us the height of folly and extrava- 
gance. But it was not so at that time; such prohibitions were made continu- 
ally, not in obscure hamlets, but in great towns, in very numerous assemblies, 
when bishops were present in hundreds, and where counts, dukes, princes, and 
kings were gathered together. This law, by which authority was glad to make 
the principles of justice respected, at least on certain days, — principally on the 
great solemnities, — this law, which now would appear to us so strange, was, in 
a certain way, and for a long period, one of the chief points of public and pri- 
vate law in Europe. It will be understood that I allude to the truce of God, a 
privilege of peace very necessary at that time, as we see it very often renewed 
in various countries. Of all that I might say on this point, I shall content 
myself with selecting a few of the decisions of Councils at the time. The 
Council of Tubuza, in the diocese of Elne, in Roussillon, held by Guifred, 
Archbishop of Narbonne, in 1041, established the truce of God, from the even- 
ing of Friday until Monday morning. Nobody during that time could take 
any thing by force, or revenge any injury, or require any pledge in surety. 
Those who violated this decree were liable to the same legal composition as if 
they had merited death; in default of which, they were excommunicated and 
banished from the country. 

The practice of this ecclesiastical regulation was considered so advantageous, 
that many other Councils were held in France during the same year, on the 
same subject. Moreover, care was taken frequently to repeat the obligation, as 
we see by the Council of Saint Gilles, in Languedoc, held in 1042, and by that 
of Narbonne, held in 1045. In spite of these, repeated efforts did not obtain 
all the desired fruit; this is indicated by the changes which we observe in the 
regulations of the law. Thus we see that, in the year 1047, the truce of God 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



was fixed for a less time than in 1041 ; the Council of Telugis, in the same 
diocese of Erne, held in 1047, only ordains that it is forbidden to any one in 
all the comte of Roussillon to attack his enemy between the hours of none on 
Sunday and prime on Monday; the law was then much less extensive than in 
1041, when, as we have seen, the truce of God was extended from Friday even- 
ing till Monday morning. We find in the same Council a remarkable regula- 
tion, the object of which was to preserve from all attack men who were going 
to church or returning from it, or who were accompanying women. In 1054, 
the truce of God had gained ground; we see it extended, not only from Friday 
evening till Monday morning after sunrise, but over considerable periods of the 
year. Thus we see that the Council of Narbonne, held by Archbishop Guifred, 
in 1045, after having included in the truce of God the time from Friday even- 
ing till Monday morning, declares it obligatory during the following periods : 
from the first Sunday of Advent till the octave of the Epiphany; from Quin- 
quagesima Sunday till the octave of Easter; from the Sunday preceding the 
Ascension till the octave of Pentecost; the festival days of Our Lady, of St. 
Peter, of St. Laurence, of St. Michael, of All Saints, of St. Martin, of St. Just 
and Pasteur, titularies of the Church of Narbonne, and all fasting days, under 
pain of anathema and perpetual banishment. The same Council gives some 
other regulations, so beautiful that we cannot pass them over in silence, when 
we are engaged in showing the influence of the Catholic Church in improving 
manners. The 9th canon forbids the cutting of olive-trees; a reason for it is 
given, which, in the eyes of jurists, will not appear sufliciently general or ade- 
quate, but which, in the eyes of the philosophy of history, is a beautiful symbol 
of the beneficial influence exercised over society by religion. This is the rea- 
son given by the Council: "It is," it says, "that the olive-trees may furnish 
matter for the holy chrism, and feed the lamps that bum in the churches." Such 
a reason was sure to produce more effect than any that could be drawn from 
Ulpian and Justinian. It is ordained in the 10th canon that shepherds and 
their flocks shall enjoy at all times the security of the truce; the same favor is 
extended by the 11th canon to all houses within thirty paces of the churches. 
The 18th canon forbids those who have a suit, to take any active steps, to com- 
mit the least violence, until the cause has been judged in presence of the bishop 
and lord of the place. The other canons forbid the robbing of merchants and 
pilgrims, and the commission of wrong against any one, under pain of being 
separated from the Church, if the crime be committed during the time of the 
truce. 

In proportion as we advance in the 11th century, we see the salutary practice 
of the truce of God more and more inculcated; the Popes interpose their 
authority in its favor. At the Council of Gironne, held by Cardinal Hugues- 
le-Blanc, in 1068, the truce of God is confirmed by the authority of Alexander 
IL, under pain of excommunication; the Council held in 1080, at Lillebonne, 
in Normandy, gives us reason to suppose that the truce was then generally 
established, since it ordains, by its first canon to bishops and lords, to take 
care that it was observed, and to inflict on offenders against it censures and 
other penalties. In the year 1093, the Council of Troja, in Apulia, held 
by Urban II. , continues tne truce of God. To judge of the extent of this 
canonical regulation, we should know that this Council consisted of sixty-five 
bishops. The number was much greater at the Council of Clermont, in Au- 
vergne, held by the same Urban IL, in 1095; it reckoned no less than thirteen 
archbishops, two hundred and twenty bishops, and a great number of abbots. 
The first canon of this Council confirms the truce for Thursday, Friday, Satur- 
day, and Sunday; it wishes, moreover, that it should be observed on all the 
days of the week, with respect to monks, clergy, and women. The canons 29 
and 30 ordain, that if a man pursued by an enemy take refuge near a cross, he 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



181 



should be in safety, as if he had found asylum in a church. The sublime sign 
of redemption, after having given salvation to the world, by drinking on Cal- 
vary the blood of the Son of God, had already proved a refuge, during the sack 
of Rome, to those who fled from the fury of the barbarians ; centuries later, we 
find it erected on the roads, to save the unfortunate, who, by embracing it, 
escaped their enemies, who were thus deterred from vengeance. 

The Council of Rouen, held in 1096, extending still further the benefit of 
the truce, ordains the observance of it from the Sunday before Ash "Wednesday 
till the second feast after the octave of Pentecost, from sunset on Wednesday 
preceding Advent to the octave of Epiphany, and every week from Friday after 
sunset till the Monday following at sunrise ; in fine, on all the feasts and vigils 
of the Virgin and the Apostles. The 2d canon of the same Council secures 
perpetual peace to all clergy, monks, and nuns, to women, to pilgrims, to mer- 
chants and their servants, to oxen and horses of labor, to carmen and laborers ; 
it gives the same privileges to all lands that belong to sacred institutions ; all 
such persons, animals, and lands are protected from the attacks of pillage and 
all kinds of violence. At this time the law felt itself stronger j it could now 
call for obedience in a firmer tone ; we see, indeed, that the third canon of the 
same Council enjoins upon all who have reached the age of twelve, to engage 
by oath to observe the truce ) in the fourth canon, all who refuse to take this 
oath are excommunicated. Some years after, in 1115, the truce, instead of 
comprising certain stated parts of the year, embraces whole years ; the Council 
of Troja in Apulia, held in that year by Pope Pascal, establishes the truce 
for three years. 

The Popes pursued with ardor the work thus commenced ; they sanctioned it 
with their authority, and extended the observance of the truce by means of 
their influence, then universal and powerful over all Europe. Although the 
truce was apparently only a testimony of respect paid to religion by the violent 
passions, which, in her favor, consented to suspend their hostilities, it was, in 
realit} r , a triumph of right over might, and one of the most admirable devices 
ever used to improve the manners of a barbarous people. The man who, during 
four days of the week, and during long periods of the year, was compelled to 
suspend the exercise of force, was necessarily led to more gentle manners ) he 
must, in the end, entirely renounce it. The difficulty is not, to convince a man 
that he does ill, but to make him lose the habit of doing so ; and it is well 
known that habits are engendered by the repetition of acts, and are lost when 
they cease for a time. Nothing is more pleasing to the Christian soul than to 
see the Popes laboring to maintain and extend this truce. They renew the 
command of it with a power the more efficacious and universal according to the 
number of bishops who assist at the Councils where their supreme authority 
presides. At the Council of Rheims, opened by Pope Calixtus II. in person, 
in 1119, a decree confirming the truce is promulgated. Thirteen archbishops, 
more than two hundred bishops, and a great number of abbots and ecclesiastics, 
distinguished for their rank, assisted at this Council. The same command is 
renewed at the General Council of Lateran, held under the care of the same 
Pontiff, Calixtus EC., in 1123. There were assembled more than three hundred 
archbishops and bishops, and more than six hundred abbots. In 1130, the 
Council of Clermont, in Auvergne, held by Innocent II., insists on the same 
point, and repeats the regulations concerning the observance of the truce. The 
Council of Avignon, held in 1209, by Hugh, Bishop of Riez, and Milon, notary 
of Pope Innocent III., both legates of the Holy See, confirms the laws before 
enacted on the subject of the peace and the truce, and condemns the rebellious 
who dare to infringe them. In the year 1215, at the Council of Montpellier, 
assembled by Robert de Courcon, and presided over by Cardinal Benavent, in 
his office as legate of the province, all the regulations established at different 

Q 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



times for the public safety, and more recently to secure peace between lord and 
lord, and town and town, are renewed and confirmed. 

Those who have regarded the intervention of the ecclesiastical power in civil 
affairs as a usurpation of the rights of public authority, should tell us how it 
is possible to usurp that which does not exist, and how a power which is unable 
to exercise the authority which ought to belong to it, can reasonably complain 
when that authority passes into the hands of those who have force and skill to 
make use of it. At that time, the public authority did not at all complain of 
these pretended usurpations. Governments and nations looked upon them as 
just and legitimate ; for, as we have said above, they were natural and neces- 
sary, they were brought about by the force of events, they were the result of 
the situation of affairs. Certainly, it would now seem extraordinary to see 
bishops provide for the security of roads, publish edicts against incendiaries, 
against robbers, against those who cut down olive-trees and commit other inju- 
ries of the kind ; but, at the time we are speaking of, this proceeding was very 
natural, and more, it was necessary. Thanks to the care of the Church, to that 
incessant solicitude which has been since so inconsiderately blamed, the founda- 
tions of the social edifice, in which we now dwell in peace, were laid ; an organ- 
ization was realized which would have been impossible without the influence of 
religion and the action of ecclesiastical authority. If you wish to know whe- 
ther any fact of which you have to judge is the result of the nature of things, 
or the fruit of well contrived combinations, observe the manner in which it 
appears, the places where it takes its rise, the times which witness its appear- 
ance j and if you shall find it reproduced at once in places far distant from each 
other, by men who can have had no concert, be assured that it is not the result 
of human contrivance, but of the force of events. These conditions are found 
united in a palpable manner in the action of the ecclesiastical power on public 
affairs. Open the Councils of those times, and everywhere the same facts meet 
your eyes ; thus, to quote a few examples, the Council of Palentia, in the king- 
dom of Leon, held in 1129, decrees, in its 12th canon, exile or seclusion in a 
monastery, against those who attack the clergy, monks, merchants, pilgrims, and 
women. Let us pass into France ; the Council of Clermont, in Auvergne, held 
in 1130, pronounces, in its 13th canon, excommunication against incendiaries. 
In 1157, the Council of Rheims, in the 3d canon, orders to be respected, 
during war, the persons of the clergy, of monks, women, travellers, laborers, 
and vine-dressers. Let us pass into Italy ; the 11th Council of Lateran, a 
General Council, convoked in 1179, forbids, in its 22d canon, to maltreat or 
disturb monks, clergy, pilgrims, merchants, peasants, either travelling or engaged 
in the labors of agriculture, and animals laboring in the fields. In its 24th 
canon, the same Council excommunicates those who make slaves of, or rob, 
Christians on voyages of commerce, or for other lawful purposes ; those who 
plunder the shipwrecked are subjected to the same penalty, unless they make 
restitution. Let us go to England; there the Council of Oxford, held in 1222, 
by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, forbids, by its 20th canon, any 
one to have robbers in their service. In Sweden, the Council of Arbogen, held 
in 1396, by Henry, Archbishop of Upsala, directs, by its 5th canon, that church- 
burial shall be refused to pirates, ravishers, incendiaries, highway robbers, op- 
pressors of the poor, and other malefactors ; so that in all parts, and at the same 
periods, we see the same fact appear, viz. the Church struggling against injus- 
tice and violence, and endeavoring to substitute in their stead the empire of law 
and justice. 

In what spirit must they read the history of the Church, who do not feel the 
beauty of the picture presented to us by the multitude of regulations, scarcely 
indicated here, all tending to protect the weak against the strong ? The clergy 
and monks, on account of the weakness consequent on their peaceful profession, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



183 



find in the canons which we have just quoted peculiar protection ) but the same 
is granted to females, to pilgrims, to merchants, to villagers, travelling, or en- 
gaged in rural labors, and to beasts of labor — in a word, to all that is weak ; 
and observe, that this protection is not a mere passing effort of generosity, but 
a system practised in widely different places, continued for centuries, developed 
and applied by all the means that charity suggests — a system inexhaustible in 
resources and contrivances, both in producing good and in preventing evil. And 
surely it cannot be said that the Church was influenced in this by views of self- 
interest : what interested motive could she have in preventing the spoliation of 
an obscure traveller, the violence inflicted on a poor laborer, or the insult offered 
to a defenceless woman ? The spirit which then animated her, whatever might 
be the abuses which were introduced during unhappy times, was, as it now is, 
the spirit of God himself — that spirit which continually communicates to her 
so marked an inclination towards goodness and justice, and always urges her to 
realize, by any possible means, her sublime desires. I leave the reader to judge 
whether or not the constant efforts of the Church to banish the dominion of 
force from the bosom of society were likely to improve manners. I now speak 
only of times of peace ; for I need not stay to prove that during the time of 
war that influence must have had the happiest results. The vce victis of the 
ancients has disappeared from modern history, thanks to the divine religion 
which knew how to inspire man with new ideas and new feelings — thanks to the 
Catholic Church, whose zeal for the redemption of captives has softened the 
fierce maxims of the Komans, who, as we have seen, had considered it necessary 
to take from brave men the hope of being redeemed from servitude, when by 
the chances of war they had fallen into the hands of their enemies. The reader 
may revert to the seventh chapter of this work, and the third paragraph of the 
fifteenth note, where there are, in the original text, numerous documents that 
may be quoted in support of our assertion ; he will thus be better able to judge 
of the gratitude which is due to the charity, disinterestedness, and indefatigable 
zeal of the Catholic Church in favor of the unfortunate, who groaned in bondage 
in the power of their enemies. We must also consider that, slavery once abo- 
lished, the system was necessarily improved ; for if those who surrendered could 
no longer be put to death, or be kept in slavery, the only thing to be done was, 
to retain them for the time necessary to prevent their doing mischief, or until 
they were ransomed. Now, this is the modern system, which consists in retain- 
ing prisoners till the end of the war, or until they are exchanged. 

Although the amelioration of manners, as I have said above, consists, properly 
speaking, in the exclusion of force, we must yet avoid considering this exclusion 
of force in the abstract, and believing that such an order of things was possible, 
by virtue of the mere development of mind. All is connected in this world ; 
it is not enough, to constitute the real improvement of manners, that they avoid 
violence as much as possible ; they must also be benevolent. As long as they 
are not so, they will be less gentle than enervated ; the use of force will not be 
banished from society, but it will remain artificially disguised. It will be un- 
derstood, then, that we are obliged here to take a survey of the principle whence 
European civilization has drawn the spirit of benevolence which distinguishes 
it; we shall thus succeed in showing that the gentleness of our present manners 
is principally owing to Catholicity. There is, besides, in the examination of the 
principle of benevolence, so much importance of its own, independently of its 
connection with the question which now occupies us, that we cannot avoid devot- 
ing some pages to it, in the course of an analytical review of the elements of 
our civilization. (22) 



184 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC BENEFICENCE IN EUROPE. 

Never will manners be perfectly gentle without the existence of public bene- 
ficence ; so that gentleness of manners and beneficence, although distinct, are 
sisters. Public beneficence, properly so called, was unknown among the 
ancients. Individuals might be beneficent there, but society was without com- 
passion. Thus, the foundation of public establishments of beneficence formed 
no part of the system of administration among ancient nations. What, then, 
did they do with the unfortunate ? We will answer with the author of the 
Genie de Christianisme, that they had no resources but infanticide and slavery. 
Christianity having become predominant everywhere, we see the authority of 
the Church employed in destroying the remains of cruel customs. In the year 
442, the Council of Vaison, establishing a regulation for the legitimate posses- 
sion of foundlings, decrees ecclesiastical censure against those who disturb by 
importunate reproaches charitable persons who have received children. The 
Council adopts this measure with the view of protecting a beneficent custom ; 
for, adds the canon, these children were exposed to be eaten by dogs. There were 
still found fathers unnatural enough to kill their children. The Council of 
Lerida, held in 546, imposes seven years of penance on those who commit such 
a crime; and that of Toledo, held in 589, forbids, in the 17th canon, parents 
to commit this crime. Still, the difficulty did not consist in correcting these 
excesses; crimes thus opposed to the first notions of morality — so much in 
contradiction to the feelings of nature — tended to their own extirpation. The 
difficulty consisted in finding proper means to organize a vast system of benefi- 
cence, to provide constant succor, not only for children, but for old men, for the 
sick, for the poor incapable of living by their own labor ; in a word, for all the 
necessitous. Familiarized as we are with such a system universally established, 
we see nothing in it but what is simple and natural ; we can hardly find any 
merit in it. But let us suppose for a moment that such institutions do not 
exist ; let us transport ourselves to the times when there was not even the first 
idea of them, what continued efforts would there not be required to establish 
and organize them ! 

It is clear that by the mere extension of Christian charity in the world the 
various wants of humanity must have been more frequently succored, and with 
more efficacy, than they were before ; and this even if we suppose that the 
exercise of charity was limited to purely individual means. Assuredly, there 
would always have been a great number of the faithful who would have remem- 
bered the doctrines and example of Jesus Christ. Our Saviour did not content 
Himself with teaching us by his discourses the obligation of loving our neigh- 
bor as ourselves, nor with a barren affection, but by giving food to the hungry, 
drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked ; by visiting the sick and prisoners. 
He showed us in his own conduct a model of the practice of charity. He 
could have shown in a thousand ways the power which belonged to Him in 
heaven and on earth ; his voice could have controlled all the elements, stopped 
the motions of the stars, and suspended all the laws of nature ; but He delighted 
above all in displaying his beneficence ; He only attested his divinity by mira- 
cles which healed or consoled the unfortunate. His whole life is summed up in 
the sublime simplicity of these two words of the sacred text : pertransiit benefa- 
ciendo; He went about doing good. 

Whatever good might be expected from Christian charity when left to its 
own inspiration, and acting in a sphere purely individual, it was not desirable 
to leave it in this state. It was necessary to realize it in permanent institu- 
tions, and not to leave the consolation of the unfortunate to the mercy of man 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



185 



and passing circumstances; this is the reason why there was so much wisdom 
and foresight in the idea of founding establishments of beneficence. It was the 
Church that conceived and executed this idea. Therein she only applied to a 
particular case her general rule of conduct; which is, never to leave to the will 
of individuals what can be connected with an institution : and observe, that 
this is one of the causes of the strength inherent in all that belongs to Catholi- 
city. As the principle of authority in matters of faith preserves to her unity 
and constancy therein, so the rule of intrusting every thing to institutions 
secures the solidity and duration of all her works. These two principles have 
an intimate connection; for if you examine them attentively, the one supposes 
that she distrusts the intellect of man, the other, that she distrusts his indivi- 
dual will and capacity. The one supposes that man is not sufficient of himself 
to attain to, and preserve the knowledge of, certain truths; the other, that he 
is so feeble and capricious, that it is unwise to leave to his weakness and incon- 
stancy the care of doing good. Now, neither one nor the other is injurious to 
man; neither one nor the other lowers his proper dignity. The Church only 
tells him, that he is, in reality, subject to error, inclined to evil, inconstant in 
his designs, and very miserable in his resources. These are melancholy truths; 
but the experience of every day attests them, and the Christian religion explains 
them, by establishing, as a fundamental dogma, the fall of man in the person 
of our first parent. Protestantism, following principles diametrically opposite, 
applies the same spirit of individuality to the will as to the intelligence ; it is 
even the natural enemy of institutions. Without going further than our present 
subject, we see that its first step, on its appearance, was to destroy what existed, 
without in any way replacing it. Will it be believed that Montesquieu went so 
far as to applaud this work of destruction ? This is another proof of the fatal 
influence exerted over minds by the pestilential atmosphere of the last century : 
"Henri VIII.," says Montesquieu, "voulant reformer l'eglise d'Angleterre, 
detruisit les moines : nation paresseuse elle-meme, et qui entretenait la paresse 
des autres, parceque, practiquant l'hospitalite, une infinite de gens oisifs, gentil- 
hommes et bourgeois, passoient leur vie a courir de couvent en couvent. 11 ota 
encore les hopitaux, ou le has peuple trouvait sa subsistence, comme les gentil- 
hommes trouvaient la leur dans les monasteres. Depuis ce changement, l'esprit 
de commerce et d'industrie s'etablit en Angleterre." {Be I 'Esprit des Lois, 
liv. xxiii. chap. 19.) That Montesquieu should praise this conduct of Henry 
VIII., and the destruction of monasteries, for the miserable reason, that it was 
good to deprive the idle of the hospitality of the monks, is a notion which ought 
not to astonish us, as such vulgar ideas were in accordance with the taste of the 
philosophy which had then begun to prevail. It attempted to find profound 
economical and political reasons for all that was in opposition to the institutions 
of Catholicity ; and this was not difficult, for a prejudiced mind always finds in 
books, as well as in facts, what it seeks. We might inquire of Montesquieu, 
however, what is become of the property of the monasteries? As these rich 
spoils were in great part given to the same nobles who found hospitality with 
the monks, we might observe to him, that it was a singular way of diminishing 
the idleness of people, to give them as their own the property which they 
had previously enjoyed as guests. It cannot be denied, that to take to the 
houses of the nobles the property which had supported the hospitality which 
the monks showed them, was certainly to save them the trouble of running from 
monastery to monastery. But what we cannot tolerate is, to hear vaunted as a 
political chef-d'oeuvre, the suppression of the hospitals where the poor people found 
their subsistence. What ! are these your lofty views, and is your philosophy so 
devoid of compassion, that you think the destruction of the asylums of misfor- 
tune proper means for encouraging industry and commerce ? The worst of it 
is, that Montesquieu, seduced by the desire of offering new and piquant obser- 
24 Q 2 



186 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



vations, goes so far as to deny the utility of hospitals, pretending that, in Rome, 
they make all live in comfort except those who labor. He does not wish to 
have them in rich nations or in poor ones. He supports this cruel paradox by 
a reason stated in the following words : " Quand la nation est pauvre," says he, 
"la pauvrete particuliere derive de la misere generale, et elle est, pour ainsi 
dire, la misere generale. Tous les hopitaux du monde ne sauraient guerir cette 
pauvrete particuliere; au contraire V 'esprit de paresse qu' 'Us inspirent augmente 
la pauvrete generale, et par consequent la particuliere." Thus, hospitals are 
represented as dangerous to poor nations, and consequently condemned. Let 
us now listen to what is said of rich ones: " J'ai dit que les nations riches avai- 
ent besoin d' hopitaux, parceque la fortune y etait sujette a mille accidents; mais 
on sent que les recours passagers vaudraient bien mieux que les etablissemcnts per- 
petuus. Le mal est momentane; il faut done des secours de meme nature, et 
qui soient applicables a 1' accident particulier." (De V Esprit des Lois, liv. xxiii. 
chap. 19.) It is difficult to find any thing more empty or more false. Un- 
doubtedly, if we were to judge, by these passages, of the Esprit des Lois, the 
merit of which has been so much exaggerated, we should be compelled to con- 
demn it in terms more severe than those employed by M. de Bonald, when he 
called it "the most profound of superficial works." Happily for the poor, and 
for the good order of society, Europe in general has not adopted these maxims; 
and on this point, as on many others, prejudices against Catholicity have been 
laid aside, in order to continue, with more or less modification, the system which 
she taught. We find in England herself a considerable number of establish- 
ments of beneficence ; and it is not believed in that country that it is necessary, 
in order to excite the activity of the poor, to expose them to the danger of dying 
of hunger. We should always remember that the system of public establish- 
ments for beneficence, now general in Europe, would not have existed without 
Catholicity ; indeed, we may rest assured, that if the religious schism had taken 
place before the foundation and organization of this system, European society 
would not now have enjoyed these establishments which do it so much honor, 
and are so precious an element of good government and public tranquillity. 
It is one thing to found and maintain an establishment of this kind, when a 
great number of similar ones already exist, — when governments possess im- 
mense resources, and strength sufficient to protect all interests ; but it is a very 
different thing to establish a multitude of them in all places, when there is no 
model to be copied, when it is necessary to improvise in a thousand ways the 
indispensable resources, — when public authority has no prestige or force to con- 
trol the violent passions that struggle to gain every thing that they can feed on. 
Now, in modern times, since the existence of Protestantism, the first only of 
these things has been done; the second was accomplished centuries before by the 
Catholic Church; and let it be observed, that what has been done in Protestant 
countries in favor of public beneficence, has been done by administrative acts 
of the government, acts which were necessarily inspired by the view of the happy 
results already obtained from similar institutions. But Protestantism, by itself, 
considered as a separate Church, has done nothing, and it could do nothing; for 
in all places where it preserves any thing of hierarchical organization, it is the 
mere instrument of the civil power; consequently it cannot there act by its own 
inspirations. Such is the vice of its constitution. Its prejudice against the 
religious institutions, both of men and women, make it sterile in this respect- 
Thus, indeed, it is deprived of one of the most powerful elements possessed by 
Catholicity to accomplish the most arduous and laborious works of charity. For 
the great works of charity, it is necessary to be free from worldly attachments 
and self-love; and these qualities are found in an eminent degree in persons 
who are devoted to charity in religious institutions. There they commence 
with that freedom which is the root of all the rest — the absence of self-love. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



187 



The Catholic Church has not been instigated to this by the civil power ; she 
has considered it as one of her own peculiar duties to provide for the unfortu- 
nate. Her bishops have always been looked upon as the protectors and the 
natural inspectors of beneficent establishments. Therefore there was a law 
which placed hospitals under the charge of the bishops; and thence it conies 
that that class of charitable institutions has always occupied a distinguished 
place in canonical legislation. The Church, from remote times, has made laws 
concerning hospitals. Thus, we see the Council of Chalcedon place under the 
authority of the bishop the clergy residing in Ptochiis, — that is, as explained by 
Zonarus, in the establishments destined to support and provide for the poor: 
" Such," he says, " as those where orphans and the old and infirm are received 
and cared for." The Council makes use of this expression, according to the 
tradition of the holy Fathers; thereby indicating that regulations had been 
made of old by the Church concerning establishments of this kind. The learned 
also know what the ancient diaconies were, — places of charity, where poor widows, 
orphans, old men, and other unfortunate persons, were received. 

When the irruption of the barbarians had introduced everywhere the reign 
of force, the possessions which hospitals already had, and those which they 
afterwards gained, were exposed to unbounded rapacity. The Church did all 
she could to protect them. It was forbidden to take them, under the severest 
penalties ; those who made the attempt were punished as murderers of the poor. 
The Council of Orleans, held in 549, forbids, in its 13th canon, taking the 
property of hospitals; the 15th canon of the same Council confirms the founda- 
tion of a hospital at Lyons, a foundation due to the charity of King Childebert 
and Queen Ultrogotha. The Council takes measures to secure the safety and 
good management of the funds of that hospital ; all violating these regulations 
are anathematized as guilty of homicide of the poor. 

We find, with respect to the poor, in very ancient Councils, regulations of 
charity and police at the same time, quite similar to measures now adopted in 
certain countries. For example, parishes are enjoined to make a list of their 
poor, to maintain them, &c. The Council of Tours, held in 566 or 567, by its 
5th canon orders every town to maintain its poor; and the priests in the 
country, as well as the faithful, to maintain their own, in order to prevent men- 
dicants from wandering about the towns and provinces. With respect to lepers, 
the 21st canon of the Council of Orleans, before quoted, prescribes to bishops to 
take particular care of these unfortunate beings in all diocesses, and to furnish 
them with food and clothing out of the Church funds ; the Council of Lyons, 
held in 583, in its 6th canon ordains that the lepers of every town and terri- 
tory shall be supported at the expense of the Church under the care of the 
bishop. The Church had a register of the poor, intended to regulate the distri- 
bution which was made to them of a portion of the ecclesiastical property ; it 
was expressly forbidden to demand any thing from the poor for being inscribed 
in this book of charity. The Council of Rheims, held in 874, in the second of 
its five articles forbids receiving any thing from the poor thus inscribed, and that 
under pain of deposition. Zeal for improving the condition of prisoners, a 
kind of charity which has been so much displayed in modern times, is extremely 
ancient in the Church. We must observe that in the sixth century there was 
already an inspector of prisons ; the archdeacon or the provost of the church was 
obliged to visit prisoners on all Sundays; no class of criminals was excluded 
from the benefit of this solicitude. The archdeacon was bound to learn their 
wants, and to furnish them, by means of a person recommended by the bishop, 
with food and all they stood in need of. This was ordered by the 20th canon of 
the Council of Orleans, held in 549. It would be too long to enumerate even a 
small part of the ordinances which attest the zeal of the Church for the comfort 
and consolation of the unfortunate; besides, it would be beyond my purpose, for 



188 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



I have only undertaken to compare the spirit of Protestantism with that of 
Catholicity with respect to works of charity. Yet, and as the development of 
this question has naturally led me to state several historical facts, I shall allude 
to the 141st canon of the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, enjoining upon prelates to 
found, according to the example of their predecessors, a hospital to receive all 
the poor that the revenues of the Church were able to support. Prebendaries 
were bound to give to the hospital the tenth of their fruits j one of them was 
appointed to receive the poor and strangers, and to watch over the administration 
of the hospital. Such was the rule of prebendaries. In the rule destined for 
the canonesses, the same Council ordains that a hospital shall be established 
close to the house, and that it shall itself contain a place reserved for poor 
women. Therefore, were there seen, many centuries later, in various places, 
hospitals near to prebendal churches. As we approach our own times, we 
everywhere see innumerable institutions founded for charity. Ought we not to 
admire the fruitfulness with which there arise, on all sides, as many resources as 
are necessary to succour all the unfortunate ? We cannot calculate with preci- 
sion what would have happened if Protestantism had not appeared, but at least 
there is a conjecture authorized by reasons of analogy. If the development of 
European civilization had been fully carried out under the principle of religious 
unity, if the so-called Reformation had not plunged Europe into continual revo- 
lutions and reactions, there would certainly have been produced in the bosom 
of the Catholic Church some general system of beneficence, which, organized on 
a grand scale and in conformity with the new progress of society, would have 
been able to prevent or effectually to remedy the sore of pauperism, that cancer 
of modern nations. What was not to be expected from all the intelligence and 
all the resources of Europe, working in concert to obtain this great result ? 
Unhappily, the unity of faith was broken; authority, the proper centre, past, 
present, and future, was rejected. From that time Europe, which was destined 
to become a nation of brothers, was changed into a most fiercely-contested battle- 
field. Hatred, engendered by religious differences, prevented any united efforts 
for new arrangements ; and the necessities which arose out of the bosom of the 
social and political organization, which was for Europe the fruit of so many cen- 
turies of labor, could not be provided for. Bitter disputes, rebellions, and wars 
were acclimatized among us. 

Let us remember that the Protestant schism not only prevented the union of 
all the efforts of Europe to attain the end in question, but, moreover, it has been 
the reason why Catholicism has not been able to act in a regular manner even in 
those countries where it has preserved its complete empire, or a decided predomi- 
nance. In these countries it has been compelled to hold itself in an attitude of 
defence ; it has been obliged, by the attacks of its enemies, to employ a great 
part of its resources in defending its own existence : it is very probably for this 
reason that the state of things in Europe is entirely different from what it would 
have been on a contrary supposition ; and perhaps in the latter case there would 
not have existed the sad necessity of exhausting itself in impotent efforts against 
an evil, which, according to all appearances, and unless hitherto unknown means 
can be devised, appears without remedy. I shall be told that the Church in this 
case would have had an excessive authority over all that relates to charity, and 
would have unjustly usurped the civil power. This is a mistake ; the Church 
has never claimed any thing that is not quite conformable to her indelible charac- 
ter of protector of all the unfortunate. During some centuries, it is true, we 
hardly hear any other voice or perceive any other action than hers, in all that 
relates to beneficence ; but we must observe that the civil power during that 
time was very far from possessing a regular and vigorous administration, capable 
of doing without the aid of the Church. The latter was so far from being actu- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



189 



ated by any motives of ambition, that her double charge of spiritual and temporal 
things imposed on her all sorts of sacrifices. 

Three centuries have passed away since the event of which we now lament 
the fatal results. Europe during this period has been submitted in great part 
to the influence of Protestantism, but it has made no progress thereby. I cannot 
believe that these three centuries would have passed away under the exclusive 
influence of Catholicity, without producing in the bosom of Europe a degree of 
charity sufficient to raise the system of beneficence to the height demanded by 
the difficulties and new interests of society. If we look at the different systems 
which ferment in minds devoted to the study of this grave question, we shall 
always find there association under one form or another. Now association has 
been at all times one of the favorite principles of Catholicity, which, by pro- 
claiming unity in faith, proclaims it also in all things; but there is this difference, 
that a great number of associations which are conceived and established in our 
days are nothing but an agglomeration of interests ; they want unity of will and 
of aim, conditions which can be obtained only by means of Christian charity. 
Yet these two conditions are indispensably necessary to accomplish great works 
of beneficence, if any thing else is required than a mere measure of public admin- 
istration. As to the administration itself, it is of little avail when it is not 
vigorous j and unfortunately, in acquiring the necessary vigor, its action 
becomes somewhat stiff and harsh. Therefore it is that Christian charity is 
required, which, penetrating on all sides like a balsam, softens all that is harsh 
in human action. I pity the unfortunate who in their necessities find only the 
succor of the civil authorities, without the intervention of Christian charity. 
In reports presented to the public, philanthropy may and will exaggerate the 
care which it lavishes on the unfortunate, but things will not be so in reality. 
The love of our brethren, when it is not founded on religious principle, is as 
fruitful in words as it is barren in deeds. The sight of the poor, of the sick, 
of impotent old age, is too disagreeable for us long to bear it, unless we are urged 
to it by very powerful motives. Even much less can we hope that a vague 
feeling of humanity will suffice to make us encounter, as we should, the constant 
cares required to console these unfortunate beings. When Christian charity is 
wanting, a good administration will no doubt enforce punctuality and exactitude 
— all that can be demanded of men who receive a salary for their services : but 
one thing will be wanting, which nothing can replace and money cannot buy, 
viz. love. But it will be asked, have you no faith in philanthropy? No ; for 
as M. de Chateaubriand says, philanthropy is only the false coin of charity. 
It was then perfectly reasonable that the Church should have a direct influence 
in all branches of beneficence, for she knew better than any others how to make 
Christian charity active, by applying it to all kinds of necessities and miseries. 
Therein she did not gratify her ambition, but found food for her zeal ; she did 
not claim a privilege, but exerted a right. In fine, if you will persevere in 
calling such a desire ambition, you cannot deny at least that it was ambition of 
a new kind. An ambition truly worthy of glory and reward, is that which 
claims the right of succoring and consoling the unfortunate. (23) 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

ON TOLERATION IN RELIGIOUS MATTERS. 

The question of the improvement of manners, treated in the preceding chap- 
ters, naturally leads me to another, sufficiently thorny in itself, and rendered 
still more so by innumerable prejudices. I allude to toleration in matters of 
religion. The word Catholicity, to certain persons, is the synonyme of intole* 



190 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



ranee j and the confusion of ideas on this point has become such, that no more 
laborious task can be undertaken than to clear them up. It is only necessary 
to pronounce the word intolerance, to raise in the minds of some people all 
sorts of black and horrible ideas. Legislation, institutions, and men of past 
times, all are condemned without appeal, the moment there is seen the slightest 
appearance of intolerance. More than one cause contributes to this universal 
prejudice. Yet, if called upon to point out the principal one, we would repeat 
the profound maxim of Cato, who, when accused at the age of eighty-six of 
certain offences of his past life, committed at times long gone by, said, "It is 
difficult to render an account of one's own conduct to men belonging to an age 
different from that in which one has lived." There are some things of which 
one cannot accurately judge without, not only a knowledge of them, but also a 
complete appreciation of the times when they occurred. How many men are 
capable of attaining to this ? There are few who are able to succeed in freeing 
their minds from the influence of the atmosphere which surrounds them j but 
there are fewer still who can do the same with their hearts. The age in which 
we live is precisely the reverse of the ages of intolerance ; and this is the first 
difficulty which meets us in discussing questions of this kind. The prejudice 
and bad faith of some who have applied themselves to this subject, have contri- 
buted also in a considerable degree to erroneous opinions. There is nothing in 
the world which cannot be undervalued by showing only one side of it ; for thus 
considered, all things are false, or rather are not themselves. All bodies have 
three dimensions ; only to look at one is not to form an idea of the body itself, 
but of a quantity very different from it. Take any institution, the most just 
and useful that can be imagined, then all the inconveniences and evils which it 
has caused, taking care to bring together into a few pages what in reality was 
spread over a great many ages; then your history will be disgusting, hideous, 
and worthy of execration. Let a partisan of democracy describe to you in a 
narrow compass, and by means of historical facts, all the inconveniences and 
evils of monarchy, the vices and the crimes of kings ; how will monarchy then 
appear to you ? But let a partisan of monarchy paint to you, in his turn, by the 
same method of historical facts, democracy and demagogues j and what will you 
then think of democracy ? Assemble in one picture all the evils occasioned to 
nations by a high degree of development of the social state ; civilization and 
refinement will then appear detestable. By seeking and selecting in the annals 
of the human mind certain traits, the history of science may be made the his- 
tory of folly, and even of crime. By heaping together the fatal accidents that 
have occurred to masters of the healing art, their beneficent profession may be 
represented as a career of homicide. In a word, every thing may be falsified 
by proceeding in this way. Grod himself would appear to us as a monster of 
cruelty and tyranny, if, taking away his goodness, wisdom, and justice, we only 
attended to the evils which we see in a world created by his power and governed 
by his providence. 

Having laid down these principles, let us apply them. The spirit of the 
age, particular circumstances, and an order of things quite different from ours, 
are all forgotten, and the history of the religious intolerance of Catholics is 
composed by taking care to condense into a few pages, and paint in the blackest 
colours, the severity of Ferdinand and Isabella, of Philip IL, of Mary of Eng- 
land, of Louis XIV., and every thing of the kind that occurred during three 
centuries. The reader who receives, almost at the same moment, the impres- 
sion of events which occurred during a period of three hundred years, — the 
reader, accustomed to live in society where prisons are being converted into 
houses of recreation, and where the punishment of death is vigorously opposed, 
can he behold the appearance of darksome dungeons, the instruments of punish- 
ment, the sanbenitos and scaffolds, without being deeply moved ? He will be- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



191 



wail the unfortunate lot of those who perish ; he will be indignant against the 
authors of what he calls horrible atrocities. Nothing has been said to this can- 
did reader of the principles and conduct of Protestants at the same time ; he 
has not been reminded of the cruelty of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth of Eng- 
land. Thus all his hatred is directed against Catholics, and he is accustomed 
to regard Catholicity as a religion of tyranny and blood. But will a judgment 
thus formed be just ? Will this be a sentence passed with a full knowledge of 
the cause ? What would impartiality direct us to do, if we met with a dark 
picture, painted in the way we have described, of monarchy, democracy, or 
civilization, of science, or of the healing art ? What we should do, or rather 
what we ought to do, is to extend our view further, to examine the subject in 
its different phases ; to inquire into its good as well as its evil : this would be 
to look upon these evils as they really are, that is, spread at great distances 
over the course of centuries ) this would weaken the impression they had made 
upon us : in a word, we should thus be just, we should take the balance in hand 
to weigh the good and evil, to compare the one with the other, as we ought 
always to do when we have duly to appreciate things in the history of humanity. 
In the case in question, we should act in the same way, in order to provide 
against the error into which we may be led by the false statements and exagge- 
rations of certain men, whose evident intention it has been to falsify facts by 
representing only one side of them. The Inquisition no longer exists, and as- 
suredly there is no probability of its being re-established; the severe laws in 
force on this matter in former times no longer exist ; they are either abrogated 
or they are fallen into desuetude : no one, therefore, has an interest in repre- 
senting this institution in a false point of view. It may be imagined that some 
men had an interest in this while they were engaged in destroying their ancient 
laws, but that once attained, the Inquisition and its laws are become a histo- 
rical fact, which ought to be examined here with attention and impartiality. 
We have here two questions, that of principle, and that of its application y in 
other words, that of intolerance, and that of the manner of showing it. We 
must not confound these two things, which, although very closely connected, 
are very different. I shall begin with the first. 

The principle of universal toleration is now proclaimed, and all kind of in- 
tolerance is condemned without appeal. But who takes care to examine the 
real meaning of these words ? who undertakes to analyze the ideas which they 
contain by the light of reason, and explain them by means of history and expe- 
rience ? Very few. They are pronounced mechanically ; they are constantly 
employed to establish propositions of the highest importance, without even the 
suspicion that they contain ideas, the right or wrong comprehension and appli- 
cation of which is every thing for the preservation of society. Few persons 
consider that these words include questions as profound as they are delicate, 
and the whole of a large portion of history ; very few observe that, according 
to one solution given to the problem of toleration, all the past is condemned, 
and all the present overturned ) nothing is left thereby to build on for the 
future but a moving bed of sand. Certainly, the most convenient way in such 
a case is, to adopt and employ these words such as we already find them in cir- 
culation, in the same way as we take and circulate the current coin, without 
considering whether it be composed of alloy or not. But what is the most con- 
venient is not always the most useful ; and, as when receiving coins of value, 
we carefully examine them, so we ought to weigh words the meaning of which 
is of such paramount importance. Toleration — what is the meaning of this 
word ? It means, properly speaking, the patience with which we suffer a thing 
which we judge to be bad, but which we think it desirable not to punish. Thus, 
some kinds of scandals are tolerated ; prostitutes are tolerated ) such and such 
abuses are tolerated ; so that the idea of toleration is always accompanied by 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the idea of evil. When toleration is exercised in the order of ideas, it always 
supposes a misunderstanding, or error. No one will say that he tolerates the 
truth. We have an observation to make here. The phrase to tolerate opinions 
is commonly used : now, opinion is very different from error. At first sight, 
the difficulty appears great ; but if we examine the thing well, we shall be able 
to explain it. When we say that we tolerate an opinion, we always mean an 
opinion contrary to our own. In this case, the opinion of another is, according 
to us, an error \ for it is impossible to have an opinion on any point whatever — 
that is, to think that a thing is or is not, is in one way or in another — without 
thinking at the same time that those who judge otherwise are deceived. If our 
opinion is only an opinion — that is, if our judgment, although based on reasons 
which appear to us to be good, has not attained to a degree of complete cer- 
tainty — our judgment of another will be only a mere opinion ; but if our con- 
viction has become completely established and confirmed — that is, if it has 
attained to certainty — we .shall be sure that those who form a judgment opposed 
to ours are deceived. Thence it follows, that the word toleration, applied to 
opinions, always means the toleration of an error. He who says, yes, thinks 
no is false ; and he who says, no, thinks yes is a mistake. This is only an ap- 
plication of the well-known principle, that it is impossible for the same thing to 
be and not to be at the same time. But, we shall be asked, What do you mean 
when you use these words, ' to respect opinions V is it always understood that 
we respect errors ? No ; for these words can have two different and equally 
reasonable meanings. The first is founded on the feebleness of the conviction 
of the person from whom the respect comes. When on any particular point 
we have only just formed an opinion, it is understood that we have not reached 
certainty; consequently, we know that there are reasons on the other side. In 
this sense, we may well say that we respect the opinions of others : we express 
thereby our conviction that it is possible that we are deceived — that it is possi- 
ble the truth is not on our side. In the second meaning, to respect opinions is 
to respect, sometimes those who profess them, sometimes their good faith, some- 
times their intentions. Thus, when we say that we respect prejudices, it is 
clear that we do not mean a real respect professed in this place. We see thus, 
that the expression ' to respect the opinions of others' has a very different mean- 
ing, according as the person from whom the respect comes has or has not assured 
convictions in the contrary sense. 

In order the better to understand what toleration is, what its origin and its 
effects, it is necessary, before we examine it in society, to reduce it to its sim- 
plest element. Let us analyze toleration considered in the individual. An 
individual is called tolerant, when he is habitually in a disposition of mind to 
bear without irritation or disturbance opinions contrary to his own. This tole- 
ration will bear different names, according to the different matters to which it 
relates. In religious matters, tolerance as well as intolerance may be found in 
those who have religion as well as in those who have none ; so that neither of 
these situations, with respect to religion, necessarily implies the one or the other. 
Some people imagine that tolerance is peculiar to the incredulous, and intole- 
rance to the religious ; but they are mistaken. Who is more tolerant than St. 
Francis de Sales ? who more intolerant than Voltaire ? 

Tolerance in religious men — that tolerance which does not come from want 
of faith, and which is not inconsistent with an ardent zeal for the preservation 
and propagation of the faith — is born of two principles, charity and humility. 
Charity, which makes us love all men, even our greatest enemies; charity, 
which inspires us with compassion for their faults and errors, and obliges us to 
regard them as brothers, to employ all the means in our power to withdraw them 
from being fatally deceived ; charity, which forbids us ever to regard them as 
deprived of the hope of salvation as long as they live. Rousseau has said, that 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



193 



" it is impossible to live in peace with those that one believes to be damned." 
We do not, and we cannot, believe in the condemnation of any man as long as 
he lives ; however great may be his iniquity, the mercy of God and the value 
of the blood of Jesus Christ are still greater. We are so far from thinking 
with the philosopher of Geneva, " that to love such people would be to hate 
God," that no one could maintain such a doctrine among us without ceasing to 
belong to our faith. The other source of tolerance is Christian humility : humi- 
lity, which inspires us with a profound sense of our weakness, and makes us 
consider all that we have as given by God ; humility, which makes us consider 
our advantages over our neighbor as so many more powerful motives for acknow- 
ledging the liberality of Providence ; humility, which, placing before our eyes 
the spectacle of humanity in its proper light, makes us regard ourselves and all 
others as members of the great family of the human race, fallen from its ancient 
dignity by the sin of our first parent ; humility, which shows us the perverse 
inclinations of our hearts, the darkness of our minds, and the claims which 
man has to pity and indulgence in his faults and errors ; humility, that virtue 
sublime even in its abasement. " If humility is so pleasing to God," is the 
admirable observation of St. Theresa, " it is because it is the truth." This is the 
virtue which renders us indulgent towards all men, by never allowing us to for- 
get that we ourselves, perhaps, more than any others, have need of indulgence. 

Yet for a man to be tolerant, in the full extent of the word, it is not enough 
for him to be humble and charitable ; this is a truth which experience teaches 
and reason explains to us. In order perfectly to clear up a point, the obscurity 
of which produces the confusion which almost always prevails in these ques- 
tions, let us make a comparison between two men equally religious, whose prin- 
ciples are the same, but whose conduct is very different. Let us suppose two 
priests both distinguished for learning and eminent virtue. The one has passed 
his life in retirement, surrounded by pious persons, and having no intercourse 
with any but Catholics : the other has been a missionary in countries where 
different religions are established, he has been obliged to live and converse with 
men of creeds different from his own ; he has been under the necessity of wit- 
nessing the establishment of temples of a false religion close to those of the 
true one. The principles of Christian charity will be the same with both these 
priests ; both will look upon faith as a gift of God, which he has received, and 
must preserve ; their conduct, however, will be very different, if they meet with 
a man of a faith different from their own, or of none at all. The first, who, 
never having had intercourse with any but the faithful, has always heard reli- 
gion spoken of with respect, will be horrified, will be indignant, at the first 
word he shall hear against the faith or ceremonies of the Church ; it will be 
impossible, or nearly so," for him to remain calm during a conversation or dis- 
cussion on the question : the second, accustomed to such things, to hear his 
faith impugned, to dispute with men of creeds opposed to his own, will remain 
tranquil; he will engage in a discussion with coolness, if it be necessary; he 
will skilfully avoid one, if prudence shall advise such a course. Whence comes 
this difference ? It is not difficult to discover. The second of these priests, 
by intercourse with men, by experience, by contradiction, has obtained a clear 
notion of the real condition of men's minds in the world ; he is aware of the 
fatal combination of circumstances which has led a great number of unfortunate 
persons into error, and keeps them there ; he knows how, in some measure, to 
put himself in their place ; and the more lively is his sense of the benefit con- 
ferred upon him by Providence, the more mild and indulgent he is towards 
others. The other may be as virtuous, as charitable, and as humble as you 
please ; but how can you expect of him that he will not be deeply moved, and 
give utterance to his indignation, the first time that he hears that denied which 
he has always believed with the most lively faith ? He has up to this time met 
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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



with no opposition in the world, but a few arguments in books. Certainly he 
was not ignorant that there existed heretics and unbelievers, but he has not 
frequently met with them, he has not heard them state their hundred different 
systems, and he has not witnessed the erroneous creeds of men of all sorts, of 
different characters, and the most varied minds ; the lively susceptibility of his 
mind, which has never met with resistance, has not been blunted ; for this 
reason, although endowed with the same virtues, and, if you will, with the same 
knowledge as the other, he has not acquired that penetration, that vivacity, so 
to speak, with which a man of practised intellect enters into the minds of those 
with whom he has to deal, discerns the reasons, seizes the motives which blind 
them and hinder them from obtaining a knowledge of the truth. 

Thus tolerance, in a person who is religious, supposes a certain degree of 
gentleness of mind, the fruit of intercourse with men, and the habits thereby 
engendered ; yet this quality is consistent with the deepest conviction, and the 
purest and most ardent zeal for the propagation of the truth. In the moral, as 
in the physical world, friction polishes, use wears away, and nothing can remain 
for a long time in an attitude of violence. A man will be indignant, once, 
twice, a hundred times, when he hears his manner of thinking attacked ; but 
it is impossible for him to remain so always ; he will, in the end, become ac- 
customed to opposition ; he will, by habit, bear it calmly. However sacred 
may be his articles of belief, he will content himself with defending and putting 
them forward at convenient opportunities ; in all other cases, he will keep them 
in the bottom of his soul, as a treasure which he is desirous to preserve from 
any thing that may injure them. Tolerance, then, does not suppose any new 
principles in a man, but rather a quality acquired by practice ; a disposition of 
mind, into which a man finds himself insensibly led; a habit of patience, 
formed in him by constantly having to bear with what he disapproves of. 

Now, if we consider tolerance in men who are not religious, we shall observe 
that there are two ways of being irreligious. There are men who not only have 
no religion, but who have an animosity against it, either on account of some 
fatal error they entertain, or because they find it an obstacle to their designs. 
These men are extremely intolerant ) and their intolerance is the worst of all, 
because it is not accompanied by any moral principle which can restrain it. A 
man thus circumstanced feels himself, as it were, continually at war with him- 
self and the human race ; with himself, because he must stifle the cries of his 
own conscience : with the human race, because all protest against the mad doc- 
trine that pretends to banish the worship of G-od from the earth. Therefore 
we find among men of this kind much rancor and spleen ; therefore their 
words are full of gall ; therefore they have constantly recourse to raillery, 
insult, and calumny. 

But there is another class of men who, although devoid of religion, are not 
strongly prejudiced against the faith. They live in a kind of skepticism, into 
which the reading of bad books, or the observations of a superficial and frivo- 
lous philosophy, have led them ; they are not attached to religion, but they are 
not its enemies. Many of them acknowledge the importance of religion for the 
good of society, and some of them even feel within themselves a certain desire 
to return to the faith ; in their moments of recollection and meditation, they 
remember with pleasure the days when they offered to G-od an obedient spirit 
and a pure heart ; and at the sight of the rapid course of life, they perhaps love 
to cherish the hope of becoming reconciled with the God of their fathers, be- 
fore they descend into the grave. These men are tolerant ; but, if carefully 
examined, their tolerance is not a principle or a virtue, it is only a necessity 
resulting from their position. It is difficult to be indignant at the opinions of 
others, when we have none of our own — when, consequently, we do not come 
into collision with any. It is difficult to be violently opposed to religion, when 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



195 



we consider it as a thing necessary for the welfare of society; there can be no 
hatred or rancor towards faith in a soul which desires its mercy, and which, 
perhaps, fixes its eyes upon it as the last beam of hope amid the terrors of an 
alarming future. Tolerance, in this case, is nothing strange ; it is natural and 
necessary. Intolerance would be inconceivable and extravagant, and could 
arise only from a bad heart. 

In applying these remarks to society instead of individuals, it must be ob- 
served that tolerance, as well as intolerance, may be considered in government, 
or in society. It sometimes happens that government and society are not 
agreed ; while the former maintains one principle, the reverse may prevail in 
the latter. As governments are composed of a limited number of individuals, 
all that has been said of tolerance, considered individually, may be applied to 
them. Let us not forget, however, that men placed in authority are not free to 
give themselves up without limit to the impulses of their own opinions or feel- 
ings ; they are often forced to immolate their own feelings on the altar of pub- 
lic opinion. They may, owing to peculiar circumstances, oppose or impede that 
opinion for a time ; but it will soon stop them, and force them to change their 
course. 

As sooner or later government becomes the expression of the ideas and feel- 
ings of society, we shall content ourselves with considering tolerance in the lat- 
ter ) we shall observe that society, with respect to tolerance, follows the same 
path as individuals. This is with it not the effect of a principle, but of a habit. 
Men of different creeds, who live together for a long time in the same society, 
end by tolerating each other ; they are led to this by growing weary of collision 
with each other, and by the wish for a kind of life more quiet and peaceful. 
But when men, thus divided in creed, find themselves face to face for the first 
time, a shock more or less rude is the inevitable result. The causes of thir 
phenomenon are to be found in human nature itself ; it is one of those necessi- 
ties against which we struggle in vain. 

Some modern philosophers have imagined that society is indebted to them for 
the spirit of toleration which prevails there ; they have not seen that it is much 
rather a fact slowly brought about by the force of circumstances, than it is the 
fruit of their doctrines. Indeed, what have they said that is new? They have 
recommended universal fraternity • but this has always been one of the doctrines 
of Christianity. They have exhorted men of all the different religions to live 
in peace together ; but before they had opened their mouths to tell them this, 
men began to adopt this course in many countries of Europe ; for, unhappily, 
religions in many countries were so numerous and different, that none of them 
could pretend to exclusive dominion. It is true that some infidel philosophers 
have a claim, and a deplorable one, in support of their pretensions with respect 
to the development of toleration ; it is, that, by their efforts to disseminate infi- 
delity and skepticism, they have succeeded in making general, in nations and 
governments, that false toleration which has nothing virtuous, but is indifference 
with respect to all religions. Indeed, why is tolerance so general in our age ? 
or, rather, in what does our tolerance consist ? If you observe well, you will 
find that it is nothing but the result of a social condition perfectly similar to 
that of the individual who has no creed, but who does not hate creeds, because 
he considers them as conducive to the public good, and cherishes a vague hope 
of one day finding a last asylum therein. All that is good in this is in no degree 
owing to the infidel philosophers, but may rather be said to be a protest against 
them. Indeed, when they could not obtain the supreme command, they lavished 
calumnies and sarcasms on all that is most sacred in heaven and on earth ) and, 
when they did raise themselves to power, they overturned with indescribable 
fury all that existed, and destroyed millions of victims in exile or on the scaf- 
folds. The multitude of religions, — infidelity, indifference, the improvement 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



of manners, the lassitude produced by wars, — industrial and commercial organi- 
zation, which every day becomes more powerful in society, — communication 
rendered more frequent among men by means of travelling, — the diffusion of 
ideas by the press ; — such are the causes which have produced in Europe that 
universal tolerance which has taken possession of all, and has been established 
in fact when it could not by law. These causes, as it is easy to observe, are of 
different kinds ; no doctrine can pretend to an exclusive influence ; they are the 
result of a thousand different influences, which act simultaneously on the deve- 
lopment of civilization. (24) 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

ON THE RIGHT OF COERCION IN GENERAL. 

How much, during the last century, was said against intolerance ! A philo- 
sophy less superficial than that which then prevailed would have reflected a lit- 
tle more on a fact which may be appreciated in different ways, but the existence 
of which cannot be denied. In Greece, Socrates died drinking hemlock. Rome, 
whose tolerance has been so much vaunted, tolerated, indeed, foreign gods ; but 
these were only foreign in name, since they formed a part of that system of 
pantheism which was the foundation of the Roman religion ; gods, who, in order 
to be declared gods of Rome, only needed the mere formality, as it were, of re- 
ceiving the name of citizens. But Rome did not admit the gods of Egypt any 
more than the Jewish or Christian religion. She had, no doubt, many false 
ideas with respect to these religions j but she was sufficiently acquainted with 
them to know that they were essentially different from her own. The history 
of the Pagan emperors is the history of the persecution of the Church ; as soon 
as they became Christians, a system of penal legislation was commenced against 
those who differed from the religion of the state. In subsequent centuries, 
intolerance continued under various forms ; it has been perpetuated down to our 
times, and we are not so free from it as some would wish to make us believe. 
The emancipation of Catholics in England is but of recent date ; the violent 
disputes of the Prussian government with the Pope, on the subject of certain 
arbitrary acts of that government against the Catholic religion, are of yesterday ; 
the question of Argau, in Switzerland, is still pending ; and the persecution 
of Catholicity by the Russian government is pursued in as scandalous a manner 
as at any former period. Thus it is with religious sects. As to the toleration 
of the humane philosophers of the 18th century, it was exemplified in Robes- 
pierre. 

Every government professing a religion is more or less intolerant towards 
those which it does not profess ; and this intolerance is diminished or destroyed, 
only when the professors of the obnoxious religions are either feared on account 
of their great power, or despised on account of their weakness. Apply to all 
times and countries the rule which we have just laid down, you will everywhere 
find it exact; it is an abridgment of the history of governments in their rela- 
tions with religions. The Protestant government of England has always been 
intolerant toward Catholics ; and it will continue to be so, more or less, accord- 
ing to circumstances. The governments of Russia and Prussia will continue to 
act as they have done up to this time, with the exception of modifications 
required by difference of times; in the same way, in countries where Catholi- 
city prevails, the exercise of the Protestant worship will always be more or 
less interfered with. I shall be told of the instance of France as a proof of the 
contrary; in that country, where the immense majority profess the Catholic 
religion, other worships are allowed, without any disposition on the part of the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



197 



state to disturb them. This toleration will perhaps be attributed to public 
opinion ; it comes, I think, from this, that no fixed principle prevails there in 
the government : all the policy of France, internal and external, is a constant 
compromise to get out of difficulties in the best possible way. This is shown 
by facts j it appears from the well-known opinions of the small number of men 
who, for some years, have ruled the destinies of France. It has been attempted 
to establish in principle universal toleration, and refuse to government the right 
of violating consciences in religious matters ; nevertheless, in spite of all that 
has been said, philosophers have not been able to make a very clear exposition 
of their principle, still less have they been able to procure its general adoption 
as a system in the government of states. In order to show that the thing is not 
quite so simple as has been supposed, I will beg leave to ask a few questions of 
these soi-disant philosophers. If a religion which required human sacrifices 
were established in your country, would you tolerate it? No. And why? 
Because we cannot tolerate such a crime. But then you will be intolerant; 
you will violate the consciences of others, by proscribing, as a crime, what in 
their eyes is a homage to the Divinity. Thus thought many nations of old, and 
so think some now. By what right do you make your conscience prevail over 
theirs ? — It matters not ; we shall be intolerant, but our intolerance will be for 
the good of humanity. — I applaud your conduct ; but you cannot deny that it 
is a case in which intolerance with respect to a religion appears to you a right 
and a duty. Still further : if you proscribe the exercise of this atrocious wor- 
ship, would you allow the doctrine to be taught which preaches as holy and salu- 
tary the practice of human sacrifices ? No ; for that would be permitting the 
teaching of murder. Very well, but you must acknowledge that this is a doc- 
trine with respect to which you have a right to be, and are obliged to be, intole- 
rant. Let us pursue our subject. You are aware, no doubt, of the sacrifices 
offered in antiquity to the goddess of Love, and the infamous worship which 
was paid to her in the temples of Babylon and Corinth. If such a worship 
reappeared among you, would you tolerate it ? No ; for it is contrary to the 
sacred laws of modesty. Would you allow the doctrine on which it was based 
to be taught ? No j for the same reason. This, then, is another case in which 
you believe you have the right and the obligation to violate the consciences of 
others ; and the only reason you can assign for it is, that you are compelled to 
do so by your own conscience. Moreover, suppose that some men, over-excited 
by reading the Bible, desired to establish a new Christianity, in imitation of 
Mathew of Haarlem or John of Leyden ; suppose that these sectaries began to 
propagate their doctrines, to assemble together in bodies, and that their fanati- 
cal declamation seduced a portion of the people, would you tolerate this new 
religion ? No ; for these men might renew the bloody scenes of G-ermany in 
the 1 6th century, when, in the name of G-od, and to fulfil, as they said, the 
order of the Most High, the Anabaptists invaded all property, destroyed all 
existing power, and spread everywhere desolation and death. This would be 
to act with as much justice as prudence; but you cannot deny that you would 
thereby commit an act of intolerance. What, then, becomes of universal tole- 
ration, that principle so evident, so predominant, if you are compelled at every 
step to limit, and I will say more, to lay it aside, and act in a way diametrically 
opposite to it? You will say that the security of the state, the good order of 
society, and public morality compel you to act in this way. But then, what 
sort of a principle is it that, in certain cases, is in opposition to the interests of 
morality and to society, and to the safety of the state ? Do you think that the 
men against whom you declaim did not intend also to protect these interests, 
by acting with that intolerance which is so revolting to you ? 

It has been acknowledged at all times and in all countries, as an incontestable 
principle, that the public authority has, in certain cases, the right of prohibiting 

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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



certain acts, in violation of the consciences of individuals who claim the right of 
performing them. If the constant testimony of history were not enough, at 
least the dialogue which we have just held ought to convince us of this truth; 
we have seen that the most ardent advocates of tolerance may well be compelled, 
in certain cases, to be intolerant. They would be obliged to be so in the name 
of humanity, of modesty, of public order; universal toleration, then, with respect 
to doctrines and religions — that toleration which is proclaimed as the duty of 
every government — is an error; it is a theory which cannot be put in practice. 
We have clearly shown that intolerance has always been, and still is, a prin- 
ciple recognised by all governments, and the application of which, more or less 
indulgent or severe, depends on circumstances, and above all, on the particular 
point of view in which the government considers things. 

A great question of right now presents itself — a question which seems, at first 
sight, to require to be solved by condemning all intolerance, both with respect to 
doctrines and acts ; but which, when thoroughly examined, leads to a very different 
result. If we grant that the mind is incapable of completely removing the diffi- 
culty by means of direct reasoning, it is not the less certain that indirect means, 
and the reasoning called ad abmrdum, are here sufficient to show us the truth, 
at least as far as it is necessary for us to know it as a guide for human prudence, 
always uncertain. The question is this : "By what right do you hinder a man 
from professing a doctrine, and acting in conformity with it, if he is convinced 
that it is true, and that he only fulfils his duty, or exercises a right, by acting 
as it prescribes ?" In order to prevent the prohibition being vain and ridicu- 
lous, there must be a penalty attached to it ; now, if you inflict this penalty, 
you punish a man who, according to his own conscience, is innocent. Punish- 
ment by the hand of justice supposes culpability ; and no one is culpable with- 
out being so first in his conscience. Culpability has its root in the conscience; 
and we cannot be responsible for the violation of a law, unless that law has ad- 
dressed us through our conscience. If our conscience tells us that an action 
is bad, we cannot perform it, whatever may be the injunctions of the law which 
prescribes it; on the contrary, if conscience tells us that an action is a duty, we 
cannot omit it, whatever may be the prohibitions of the law. This is, in a few 
words, and in all its force, the whole argument that can be alleged against intole- 
rance in regard to doctrines and facts emanating from them. Let us now see 
what is the real value of these observations, apparently so conclusive. 

It is apparent that the admission of this principle would render impossible 
the punishment of any political crime. Brutus, when plunging his dagger into 
the heart of Caesar; Jacques Clement, when he assassinated Henry III., acted, 
no doubt, under the influence of an excitement of mind, which made them view 
their attempts as deeds of heroism ; and yet, if they had both been brought be- 
fore a tribunal, would you have thought them entitled to impunity — the one on 
account of his love of country, and the other on account of his zeal for religion ? 
Most political crimes are committed under a conviction of doing well ; and I do 
not speak merely of those times of trouble, when men of parties the most op- 
posed are fully persuaded that they have right on their side. Conspiracies con- 
trived against governments in times of peace are generally the work of some 
individuals who look upon them as illegal and tyrannical; when working to 
overthrow them, they are acting in conformity with their own principles. 
Judges punish them justly when they inflict on them the penalties appointed 
by legislators ; and yet, neither legislators when they decree the penalty, nor 
the judges when they inflict it, are, or can be, ignorant of the condition of 
mind of the delinquent who has violated the law. It may be said, that compas- 
sion and indulgence with respect to political crimes increase every day, for these 
reasons. I shall reply, that if we lay down the principle that human justice 
has not the right to punish, when the delinquent acts according to his convic- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



199 



tion, we must not only mitigate our punishments, but even abolish them. In 
this case, capital punishment would be a real murder, a fine a robbery, and other 
penalties so many acts of violence. I shall remark in passing, that it is not 
true that severity towards political crimes diminishes as much as it is said to 
do j the history of Europe of late years affords us some proofs to the contrary. 
We do not now see those cruel punishments which were in use at other times ; 
but that is not owing to the conscience of the criminal being considered by the 
judge, but to the improvement of manners, which, being everywhere diffused, 
has necessarily influenced penal legislation. It is extraordinary that so much 
severity has been preserved in laws relating to political crimes, when so great a 
number of legislators among the different nations of Europe knew well that they 
themselves, at other times, had committed the same crimes. And there is no 
doubt that more than one man, in the discussion of certain penal laws, has 
inclined to indulgence, from the presentiment that these very laws might one 
day apply to himself. The impunity of political crimes would bring about the 
subversion of social order, by rendering all government impossible. Without 
dwelling longer on the fatal results which this doctrine would have, let us ob- 
serve, that the benefit of impunity in favor of the illusions of conscience would 
not be due to political crimes alone, but would be applicable also to those of an 
ordinary kind. Offences against property are crimes of this nature ; and yet 
we know that many at former periods regarded, and that unfortunately some 
still regard, property as a usurpation and an injustice. Offences against the 
sanctity of marriage are ordinarily considered crimes ; and yet have there not 
been sects in whose sight marriage was unlawful, and others who have desired, 
and still desire, a community of women? The sacred laws of modesty and 
respect for innocence have alike been regarded by some sects as an unjust 
infringement of the liberty of man ) to violate these laws, therefore, was a 
meritorious action. At the time when the mistaken ideas and blind fanaticism 
of the men who professed these principles were undoubted, would any one have 
been found to deny the justice of the chastisement which was inflicted on them 
when, in pursuance of their doctrines, they committed a crime, or even when 
they had the audacity to diffuse their fatal maxims in society ? 

If it were unjust to punish the criminal for acting according to his conscience, 
all imaginable crimes would be permitted to the atheist, the fatalist, the disciple 
of the doctrine of private interest; for by destroying, as they do, the basis of 
all morality, these men do not act against their consciences ; they have none. 
If such an argument were to hold good, how often would we have reason to 
charge tribunals with injustice, when they inflict any punishment on men of 
this class. By what right, we would say to magistrates, do you punish this 
man, who, not admitting the existence of God, does not acknowledge himself 
culpable in his own eyes, or consequently in yours? You have made a law, by 
virtue of which you punish him ; but this law has no power over the conscience 
of this man, for you are his equals ; and he does not acknowledge the existence 
of any superior, to give you the power of controlling his liberty. By what right 
do you punish another, who is convinced that all his actions are the effect of neces- 
sary causes, that free-will is a chimera, and who, in the action which you charge 
on him as a crime, believes that he had no more power of restraining himself 
than the wild beast, when he throws himself upon the prey before his eyes, or 
upon any other animal that excites his fury ? With what justice do you punish 
him, who is persuaded that all morality is a lie ; that there is no other principle 
than individual interest ; that good and evil are nothing but this interest, well 
or ill understood ? If you make him undergo any punishment, it will not be 
because he is culpable in his own conscience ; you will punish him for being 
deceived in his calculation, for having ill-understood the probable result of the 
action which he was about to commit. Such are the necessary and inevitable 



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deductions from the doctrine, which refuses to the public authority the power of 
punishing crimes committed in consequence of an error of the mind. 

But I shall be told that the right of punishment only extends to actions, and 
not to doctrines; that actions ought to be subject to the law, but that doctrines 
are entitled to unbounded liberty. Do you mean doctrines shut up in the mind 
and not outwardly manifested ? It is clear that not only the right, but also the 
possibility of punishing them is wanting, for God alone can tell the secrets of 
the heart of man. If avowed doctrines are meant, then the principle is false ; 
and we have just shown that those who maintain it in theory, find it impossible 
to reduce it to practice. In fine, we shall be told that, however absurd in its 
results may be the doctrine which we have been combating, it is still impossible 
to justify the punishment of an action which was ordered or authorized by the 
conscience of the man who committed it. How is this difficulty to be solved ? 
How is this great obstacle to be removed ? Is it lawful in any case to treat as 
culpable the man who is not so at the tribunal of his own conscience ? 

Although this question seems entirely to turn upon some point on which men 
of all opinions are agreed, there is nevertheless a wide difference in this respect 
between Catholics on one side and unbelievers and Protestants on the other. 
The first lay it down as an incontestable principle, that there are errors of the 
understanding which are faults; the others, on the contrary, think, that all 
errors of the understanding are innocent. The first consider error in regard to 
great moral and religious truths, as one of the gravest offences which man can 
commit against God ; their opponents look upon errors of this kind with great 
indulgence, and they ought to do so in order to be consistent. Catholics admit 
the possibility of invincible ignorance with respect to some very important 
truths j but with them this possibility is limited to certain circumstances, out of 
which they declare man to be culpable : their opponents constantly extol liberty 
of thought, without any other restriction than that imposed by the taste of each 
one in particular ; they constantly affirm that man is free to hold the opinions 
which he thinks proper ; they have gone so far as to persuade their followers 
that there are no culpable errors or opinions, that man is not obliged to search 
into the secret recesses of his soul, to make sure that there are no secret causes 
which induce him to reject the truth ; they have in the end monstrously con- 
founded physical with moral liberty of thought; they have banished from 
opinions the ideas of lawful and unlawful, and have given men to understand 
that such ideas are not applicable to thought. That is to say, in the order of 
ideas, they have confounded right with fact, declaring, in this respect, the use- 
lessness and incompetency of alt laws, divine and human. Senseless men ! as 
if it were possible for that which is most noble and elevated in human nature 
to be exempt from all rule ; as if it were possible for the element which makes 
man the king of the creation, to be exempted from concurring in the ineffable 
harmony of all parts of the universe with themselves and with God ; as if this 
harmony could exist, or even be conceived in man, unless it were declared to be 
the first of human obligations to adhere constantly to truth. 

This is one of the profound reasons which justify the Catholic Church, when 
she considers the sin of heresy as one of the greatest that man can commit. 
You, who smile, with pity and contempt at these words, the sin of heresy; you, 
who consider this doctrine as the invention of priests to rule over consciences, 
by retrenching the liberty of thought ; by what right do you claim the power 
of condemning heresies which are opposed to your orthodoxy? By what right 
do you condemn those societies that profess opinions hostile to property, public 
order, and the existence of authority ? If the thought of man is free, if you 
cannot attempt to restrain it without violating sacred rights, if it is an absurdity 
and a contradiction to wish to oblige a man to act against his conscience, or dis- 
obey its dictates — why do you interfere with those men who desire to destroy 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



201 



the existing state of society ? Why baffle, why oppose those dark conspiracies, 
which, from time to time, send one of their members to assassinate a king ? 
You invoke your convictions to declare unjust and cruel the intolerance which 
has been practised at certain times against your enemies ; but you must remem- 
ber that such societies and such men can also invoke their convictions. You 
say that the doctrines of the Church are human inventions ; they say that the 
doctrines prevailing in society are also human inventions. You say that the 
ancient social order was a monopoly ; they say the present social order is a 
monopoly. In your eyes, the ancient authorities were tyrannical ; in theirs the 
present ones are so. You pretended to destroy what existed, in order to found 
new institutions conducive to the good of humanity ; to-day these men hold the 
same language. You have proclaimed holy the war which was waged against 
ancient power j they proclaim holy the war against present power. When you 
availed yourselves of the means which offered themselves, you pretended that 
necessity rendered them legitimate ; they declare to be not less legitimate the 
only means which they possess, that of combinations, of preparing for their 
opportunity, and of hastening it by assassinating great men. You have pre- 
tended to make all opinions respected, even atheism, and you have taught that 
nobody has a right to prevent your acting in conformity with your principles ; 
but the fanatics in question have also their horrible principles and their dreadful 
convictions. Do you require a proof of this ? See them amid the gayety of 
public celebrations, glide, pale and gloomy, among the joyful multitude, choose 
the fitting moment to cast desolation over a royal family, and cover a nation 
with mourning, while they accumulate on their own heads the public execration, 
certain, moreover, of finishing their lives on the scaffold. But our adversaries 
will say, such convictions are inexcusable. Yours are so also. All the differ- 
ence is, that you have contrived your ambitious and fatal systems amid ease and 
pleasure, perhaps in opulence, and under the shadow of power, while they have 
conceived their abominable doctrines in the bosom of obscurity, poverty, misery? 
and despair. 

Indeed, the inconsistency of some men is shocking to the last degree. To 
ridicule all religions, to decry the spirituality and immortality of the soul, and 
the existence of God, to overturn all morality, and sap its deepest foundations, 
all this they have considered excusable, and we may even say, worthy of praise ; 
moreover, the writers who have undertaken this fatal task are worthy of apo- 
theosis ; men must expel the Divinity from his temples to place there the names 
and busts of the leaders of their schools ; under the vaults of splendid basilicas, 
where repose the ashes of Christians awaiting the resurrection, they must raise 
the mausoleum of Voltaire and Rousseau, in order that future generations, when 
they descend into their dark and silent abodes, may receive the inspirations of 
their genius. But have they, then, a right to complain that property, and 
domestic life, and social order are attacked ? Property is sacred ,• but is it 
more sacred than Glod ? However great may be the importance of the truths 
relating to the family and to society, are they of a superior order to the eternal 
principles of morality, or rather, are they any thing more than the application 
of these principles ? 

But let us resume the thread of our discourse. When the principle, that 
there are culpable errors, is once established (a principle which in practice, if 
not in theory, must be received by all men, but which Catholicity alone can 
logically maintain in theory), it is easy to see the reason of the punishments 
which human power decrees against the propagation and teaching of certain 
doctrines ; and we can understand why it is legitimate to punish, without consi- 
dering the conviction that animated the culprit, the actions which are the result 
of his doctrines. The law shows that this mortal error has existed, or can exist ; 
but in this case it declares the error itself to be culpable; and if man adduces 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the testimony of his own conscience, the law reminds him that it is his duty to 
rectify his conscience. Such is, in truth, the foundation of a legislation which 
has appeared so unjust ; a foundation which it is necessary to point out, in 
order to vindicate a great many human laws from a deep disgrace ; for it would 
be a great disgrace to claim the right of punishing a man who was really inno- 
cent. Such an absurd right is so far from belonging to human justice, that it 
does not belong even to God. The infinite justice of God would cease to be 
what it is, if it could punish the innocent. 

Perhaps another origin will be assigned for the right which governments pos- 
sess, of punishing the propagation of certain doctrines and the actions com- 
mitted in consequence of them, when the criminal has acted from the deepest 
conviction. " Governments," it may be said, "act in the name of society, 
which, like every being, possesses the right of self-defence. There are certain 
doctrines which menace its existence ; it has, therefore, of necessity and right, 
the power of resisting those who promulgate them." Such a reason, however 
plausible it may appear, is liable to this grave objection, that it destroys at one 
blow the idea of punishment and justice. To wound an aggressor in self-de- 
fence is not to chastise but to resist him. If we consider society in this point 
of view, the criminal led to punishment will no longer be a real criminal, but 
the unfortunate victim of a rash and unequal struggle. The voice of the judge 
condemning him will no longer be the august voice of justice ; his sentence 
will only be the act of society avenging the attack made upon it. The word 
punishment will then assume quite a different meaning ; the gradations of it 
will depend entirely upon calculations, and not on justice. We must remem- 
ber this ; if we suppose that society, by virtue of the right of self-defence, 
inflicts a punishment upon the man whom it considers quite innocent, it no 
longer judges or condemns, but fights and struggles. That which is perfectly 
suitable with respect to the relations between one society and another, is in no 
way suitable to society in its relations with individuals. It then appears like a 
combat between a giant and a pigmy. The giant takes the pigmy in his hand, 
and crushes him against a stone. 

The doctrine which I have just explained evidently shows the value of the 
much vaunted principle of universal toleration ; it has been demonstrated that 
that principle is as impracticable in fact as it is unsustainable in theory; con- 
sequently all the accusations made against the Catholic Church on the subject 
of intolerance are overturned. It has been clearly shown that intolerance is in 
some measure the right of all public power ; this has always been acknowledged ; 
it is acknowledged still, generally speaking, when philosophers, the partisans 
of tolerance, attain to power. No doubt, governments have a thousand times 
abused this principle ; no doubt, more than once the truth has been persecuted 
in virtue of it ; but what do men not abuse ? Their duty, then, as good philo- 
sophers, was not to establish principles that cannot be sustained, and are ex- 
tremely dangerous; not to declaim to satiety against the times and institutions 
which have preceded us ; but to endeavor to propagate sentiments of mildness 
and indulgence, and, above all, not to impugn important truths, without which 
society cannot be sustained, and which cannot be destroyed without abandoning 
the world to the empire of force, and, consequently, to despotism and tyranny. 

Men have attacked dogmas ) but they have not been willing to see that mo- 
rality was intimately connected with dogmas, and that it was itself a dogma. By 
proclaiming unbounded liberty of thought, they have asserted the impeccability 
of the mind ; error has ceased to figure among the faults of which men can be 
guilty. They have forgotten that, in order to will, it was necessary to know ; 
and that to will rightly, it was necessary to know truly. If we examine the 
greater part of the errors of our hearts, we shall see that they have their source 
in a misunderstanding ; is it possible, then, that it should not be the duty of 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



203 



man to preserve his mind from error ? But since it has been said that opinions 
are of little importance, that man is free to choose such as please him, even in 
matters of religion and morality, truth has lost its value ; its intrinsic worth is 
no longer what it was in the eyes of man ; and too many consider themselves 
exempt from attempting to attain it, — a deplorable condition of mind, which is 
one of the greatest evils afflicting society. (25) 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

ON THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 

I find myself naturally led to make a few observations on the intolerance of 
certain Catholic princes, on the Inquisition, and in particular on that of Spain. 
I must make a rapid examination of the charges against Catholicity on account 
of its conduct during the last centuries. The dungeons, the burnings of the 
Inquisition, and the intolerance of some Catholic princes, have furnished the 
enemies of the Church with one of their most effective arguments in depreci- 
ating her, and rendering her the object of odium and hatred ; and it must be 
allowed that they have, in attacks of this kind, many advantages, which give 
them good prospects of success. Indeed (as we have said above, for the gene- 
rality of readers, who, without undertaking to examine things to the bottom, 
naively allow themselves to be led away by a subtle writer ; as we have said, 
for all those who have sensitive hearts, and are prompt to pity the unfortunate), 
what is more likely to excite indignation than the exhibition of dark dungeons, 
instruments of torture, san-benitos, and burnings ? Imagine what effect must be 
produced, amid our toleration, our gentle manners, our humane penal codes, by 
the sudden exhibition of the severities, the cruelties of another age ; the whole 
exaggerated and grouped into one picture, where are shown all the melancholy 
scenes which occurred in different places, and were spread over a long period of 
time. They take care to remind us that all this was done in the name of the 
God of peace and love ; thereby the contrast is rendered more vivid, the ima- 
gination is excited, the heart becomes indignant; and the result is, that the 
clergy, magistrates, kings, and popes of those remote times, appear like a troop 
of executioners, whose pleasure consists in tormenting and desolating the human 
race. Writers, who have ventured to act in this way, have certainly not added 
to their reputation for delicacy of conscience. There is a rule which orators 
and writers ought never to forget, viz. that it is not allowable to excite the pas- 
sions, until they have convinced the reason, unless it had been convinced before. 
Besides, there is a degree of bad faith in appealing to the feelings with respect 
to matters which ought to be examined by the light of reason alone, if they are 
to be examined properly. In such a case we ought not to begin by moving, but 
by convincing; to do otherwise is to deceive the reader. 

I am not going to write the history of the Inquisition, or of the different 
systems which various countries have adopted with respect to religious intole- 
rance ; this would be impossible within my narrow limits ; besides, it would 
lead me away from the object of my work. Ought we to draw from the Inqui- 
sition in general, that of Spain in particular, or from the greater or less intole- 
rance of the legislation of some countries, an accusation against Catholicity ? 
Can it, in this respect, be put in comparison with Protestantism ? Such are the 
questions I have to examine. 

Three things at first present themselves to the eyes of the observer : 1st, 
the legislation and institutions proceeding from the principle of intole- 
rance ; 2d, the use which has been made of this legislation and these institu- 
tions; 3d, the intolerant acts which have been committed illegally. With 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



respect to the latter, I must say at once that they have nothing to do with the 
question. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and other atrocities committed in 
the name of religion, ought not to trouble the apologists of religion : to render 
her responsible for all that has been done in her name, would be to act with 
manifest injustice. Man is endowed with so strong and lively a sense of the 
excellence of virtue, that he endeavors to cover the greatest crimes with her 
mantle ; — would it be reasonable to banish virtue from the earth on that account? 
There are, in the history of mankind, terrible periods, where a fatal giddiness 
seizes upon the mind; rage, inflamed by disorder, blinds the intellect and 
changes the heart ; evil is called good, and good evil ; the most horrible at- 
tempts are made under the most respectable names. Historians and philoso- 
phers, in treating of such periods, should know what ought to be their line of 
conduct; strictly accurate in the narration of such facts, they ought to beware 
of drawing from them a judgment as to the prevailing ideas and institutions. 
Society then resembles a man in a state of delirium; we should ill judge of the 
ideas, character, and conduct of such a man, from what he says and does in that 
deplorable condition. What party, in those calamitous times, can boast of not 
having committed great crimes ? If we fix our eyes on the period just men- 
tioned, do we not see the leaders of both parties assassinated by treason? Ad- 
miral Coligny died by the hands of the assassins who began the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew ; but the Duke of G-uise had been also assassinated by Poltrot, 
before Orleans. Henry III. was assassinated by Jacques Clement; but this 
same Henry III. had treacherously murdered the other Duke of Guise in the 
corridors of his palace, and his brother, the Cardinal, in the tower of Moulins ; 
this same Henry III. had taken part in the massacre of St. Bartholomew. We 
see atrocities committed by the Catholics ; but did not their opponents also com- 
mit them ? Let us throw a veil over these catastrophes, over these afflicting 
proofs of the misery and perversity of the human heart. The tribunal of the 
Inquisition, considered in itself, is only the application to a particular case of 
that doctrine of intolerance, which, to a greater or less degree, is that of every 
existing power. Thus, we have only to examine the character of that particu- 
lar application, and see whether its enemies are correct in their charges against 
it. In the first place, we must observe that those who extol antiquity, sadly 
falsify history, if they pretend that intolerance only appeared after the time 
when, according to them, the Church had degenerated from her primitive purity. 
As for myself, I see that from the earliest times, when the Church began to 
exert political influence, heresy began to figure in the codes as a crime ; and I 
have never been able to discover a period of complete tolerance. I must here 
make an important remark, which shows one of the causes of the rigor dis- 
played in later centuries. The Inquisition was first directed against the Mani- 
chean heretics; that is, against the sectaries who at all times were treated with 
the greatest severity. In the 11th century, when the punishment of fire had 
not yet been applied to the crime of heresy, the Manicheans were excepted from 
this rule. Even in the time of the Pagan emperors, these sectaries were treated 
with extreme rigor. In the year 296, we see Diocletian and Maximilian, by an 
edict, condemning to different punishments the Manicheans who had not ab- 
jured their dogmas, and consigning their leaders to the fire. These sectaries 
have always been considered as great criminals ; and to punish them has al- 
ways been judged necessary, not only for the interests of religion, but even for 
the morals and good order of society. This was one of the causes of the rigor 
of the Inquisition at its commencement : if we add to this, the turbulent cha- 
racter of the sects which, under various names, arose in the 11th, 12th, and 
13th centuries, we shall have two of the causes that contributed to produce those 
scenes which now we can scarcely credit. In studying the history of those 
centuries, and fixing our attention on the troubles and disasters which ravaged 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



205 



the south of France, we clearly see that it was not a dispute as to a particular 
dogma, but that the whole social system was compromised. The sectaries of 
those times were precursors of those of the 16th century ; with this difference, 
that the latter, if we except the frantic Anabaptists, were less democratic, less 
apt to address the multitude. Amid the cruelties of those times, when long 
ages of violence and revolution had given an excessive preponderance to brute 
force, what could be expected from governments incessantly menaced with such 
imminent danger ? It is clear that the laws, and their application, must savour 
of the times. 

As to the Spanish Inquisition, which was only an extension of that which 
was established in other countries, we must divide it, with respect to its dura- 
tion, into three great periods ; — we omit the time of its existence in the king- 
dom of Aragon, before its introduction into Castille. The first of these compre- 
hends the time when the Inquisition was principally directed against the relapsed 
Jews and Moors, from the day of its installation under the Catholic sovereigns, 
till the middle of the reign of Charles V. The second extends from the time 
when it began to concentrate its efforts to prevent the introduction of Protest- 
antism into Spain, until that danger entirely ceased ; that is, from the middle 
of the reign of Charles V. till the coming of the Bourbons. The third and last 
period is that when the Inquisition was limited to repress infamous crimes, and 
exclude the philosophy of Voltaire ; this period was continued until its abolition 
in the beginning of the present century. It is clear that, the institution being 
successively modified according to circumstances at these different epochs, — 
although it always remained fundamentally the same, — the commencement and 
termination of each of these three periods which we have pointed out cannot be 
precisely marked ; nevertheless, these three periods really existed in its history, 
and present us with very different characters. 

Every one knows the peculiar circumstances in which the Inquisition was 
established in the time of the Catholic sovereigns ; yet it is worthy of remark, 
that the Bull of establishment was solicited by Queen Isabella ; that is, by one 
of the most distinguished sovereigns in our history, — by that queen who still, 
after three centuries, preserves the respect and admiration of all Spaniards. Isa- 
bella, far from opposing the will of the people in this measure, only realized the 
national wish. The Inquisition was established chiefly against the Jews ; the 
Papal Bull had been sent in 1478 j now, before the Inquisition published its 
first edict, dated Seville, in 1481, the Cortes of Toledo, in 1480, had adopted 
severe measures on the subject. To prevent the injury which the intercourse 
between Jews and Christians might occasion to the Catholic faith, the Cortes 
had ordered that unbaptized Israelites should be obliged to wear a distinctive 
mark, dwell in separate quarters, called Juiveries, and return there before night. 
Ancient regulations against them were renewed ; the professions of doctor, 
surgeon, shopkeeper, barber, and tavern-keeper, were forbidden them. Intole- 
rance was, therefore, popular at that time. If the Inquisition be justified in the 
eyes of friends to monarchy, by conformity with the will of kings, it has an 
equal claim to be so in the eyes of lovers of democracy. 

No doubt the heart is grieved at reading the excessive severities exercised at 
that time against the J ews ; but must there not have been very grave causes to 
provoke such excesses ? The danger which the Spanish monarchy, not yet well 
established, would have incurred if the Jews, then very powerful on account of 
their riches and their alliances with the most influential families, had been 
allowed to act without restraint, has been pointed out as one of the most important 
of these causes. It was greatly to be feared that they would league with the 
Moors against the Christians. The respective positions of the three nations 
rendered this league natural: this is the reason why it was looked upon as 
necessary to break a power which was capable of compromising anew the inde- 

S 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



pendence of the Christians. It is necessary also to observe, that at the time when 
the Inquisition was established, the war of eight hundred years against the Moors 
was not yet finished. The Inquisition was projected before 1474 ; it was estab- 
lished in 1480, and the conquest of Granada did not take place till 1492. Thus 
it was founded at the time when the obstinate struggle was about to be decided ; 
it was yet to be known whether the Christians would remain masters of the 
whole peninsula, or whether the Moors should retain possession of one of the 
most fertile and beautiful provinces ; whether these enemies, shut up in Granada, 
should preserve a position, excellent for their communication with Africa, and 
a means for all the attempts which, at a later period, the Crescent might be 
disposed to make against us. Now, the power of the Crescent was very great, 
as was clearly shown by its enterprises against the rest of Europe in the next 
century. In such emergencies, after ages of fighting, and at the moment which 
was to decide the victory for ever, have combatants ever been known to conduct 
themselves with moderation and mildness ? It cannot be denied that the system 
of repression pursued in Spain, with respect to the Jews and the Moors, was 
inspired, in great measure, by the instinct of self-preservation : we can easily 
believe that the Catholic princes had this motive before them when they decided 
on asking for the establishment of the Inquisition in their dominions. The 
danger was not imaginary : it was perfectly real. In order to form an idea of 
the turn which things might have taken if some precaution had not been 
adopted, it is enough to recollect the insurrections of the last Moors in later 
times. 

Yet it would be wrong, in this affair, to attribute all to the policy of royalty ; 
and it is necessary here to avoid exalting too much the foresight and designs of 
men ; for my part, I am inclined to think that Ferdinand and Isabella naturally 
followed the generality of the nation, in whose eyes the Jews were odious when 
they persevered in their creed, and suspected when they embraced the Christian 
religion. Two causes contributed to this hatred and animadversion. First, the 
excited state of religious feeling then general in all Europe, and especially in 
Spain ; 2d, the conduct by which the Jews had drawn upon themselves the 
public indignation. 

The necessity of restraining the cupidity of the J ews, for the sake of the inde- 
pendence of the Christians, was of ancient date in Spain : the old assemblies of 
Toledo had attempted it. In the following centuries the evil reached its height ; 
a great part of the riches of the peninsula had passed into the hands of the 
Jews, and almost all the Christians found themselves their debtors. Thence 
the hatred of the people against the J ews ; thence the frequent troubles which 
agitated some towns of the peninsula ; thence the tumults which more than once 
were fatal to the Jews, and in which their blood flowed in abundance. It was 
difficult for a people accustomed for ages to set themselves free by force of arms, 
to resign themselves peacefully and tranquilly to the lot prepared for them by 
the artifices and exactions of a strange race, whose name, moreover, bore the 
recollection of a terrible malediction. 

In later times, an immense number of Jews were converted to the Christian 
religion ; but the hatred of the people was not extinguished thereby, and mistrust 
followed these converts into their new state . It is very probable that a great 
number of these conversions were hardly sincere, as they were partly caused by 
the sad position in which the Jews who continued in Judaism were placed. In 
default of conjectures founded on reason in this respect, we will regard as a 
sufficient corroboration of our opinion, the multitude of Judaizing Christians who 
were discovered as soon as care was taken to find out those who had been guilty 
of apostacy. However this may be, it is certain that the distinction between 
new and old Christians was introduced ; the latter denomination was a title of 
honor, and the former a mark of ignominy ; the converted Jews were contemptu- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



207 



ously called marranos, — impure men, pigs. With more or less foundation, they 
were accused of horrible crimes. In their dark assemblies they committed, it 
was said, atrocities which could hardly be believed, for the honor of humanity. 
For example, it was said that, to revenge themselves on the Christians and in 
contempt of religion, they crucified Christian children, taking care to choose for 
the purpose the greatest day among Christian solemnities. There is the often- 
repeated history of the knight of the house of Gruzman, who, being hidden one 
night in the house of a Jew whose daughter he loved, saw a child crucified at 
the time when the Christians celebrated the institution of the sacrifice of the 
Eucharist. Besides infanticide, there were attributed to the Jews, sacrileges, 
poisonings, conspiracies, and other crimes. That these rumors were generally 
believed by the people is proved by the fact, that the Jews were forbidden by 
law to exercise the professions of doctor, surgeon, barber, and tavern-keeper; 
this shows what degree of confidence was placed in their morality. It is useless 
to stay to examine the foundations for these sinister accusations. We are not 
ignorant how far popular credulity will go, above all when it is under the influ- 
ence of excited feelings, which makes it view all things in the same light. It is 
enough for us to know that these rumors circulated everywhere and with credit, 
to understand what must have been the public indignation against the Jews, and 
consequently how natural it was that authority, yielding to the impulse of the 
general mind, should be urged to treat them with excessive rigor. 

The situation in which the Jews were placed is sufficient to show, that they 
might have attempted to act in concert to resist the Christians j what they did 
after the death of St. Peter Arbues shows what they were capable of doing on 
other occasions. The funds necessary for the accomplishment of the murder, 
the pay of the assassins, and the other expenses required for the plot, were col- 
lected by means of voluntary contributions imposed on themselves by all the 
Jews of Aragon. Does not this show an advanced state of organization, which 
might have become fatal if it had not been watched. 

In alluding to the death of St. Peter Arbues, I wish to make an observation 
on what has been said on this subject, as proving the unpopularity of the estab- 
lishment of the Inquisition in Spain. What more evident proof, we shall be 
told, can you have than the assassination of the Inquisitor ? Is it not a sure 
sign that the indignation of the people was at its height, and that they were quite 
opposed to the Inquisition ? Would they otherwise have been hurried into such 
excesses? If by 'the people' you mean the Jews and their descendants, I will 
not deny that the establishment of the Inquisition was indeed very odious to 
them; but it was not so with the rest of the nation. The event we are speaking 
of gave rise to a circumstance which proves just the reverse. When the report of 
the death of the Inquisitor was spread through the town, the people made a fearful 
tumult to avenge his death. They spread through the town, they went in crowds 
in pursuit of the new Christians, so that a bloody catastrophe would have ensued, 
had not the young Archbishop of Saragossa, Alphonsus of Aragon, presented him- 
self to the people on horseback, and calmed them by the assurance that all the 
rigor of the laws should fall on the heads of the guilty. Was the Inquisition 
as unpopular as it has been represented; and will it be said that its adversaries 
were the majority of the people? Why, then, could not the tumult at Saragossa 
have been avoided in spite of all the precautions which were no doubt taken by 
the conspirators, at that time very powerful by their riches and influence ? 

At the time of the greatest rigor against the Judaizing Christians, there is a 
fact worthy of attention. Persons accused, or threatened with the pursuit of the 
Inquisition, took every means to escape the action of that tribunal : they left 
the soil of Spain and went to Rome. Would those who imagine that Rome has 
always been the hotbed of intolerance, the firebrand of persecution, have ima- 
gined this ? The number of causes commenced by the Inquisition, and summoned 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



from Spain to Rome, is countless, during the first fifty years of the existence 
of that tribunal; and it must be added, that Rome always inclined to the side 
of indulgence. I do not know that it would be possible to cite one accused 
person who, by appealing to Rome, did not ameliorate his condition. The his- 
tory of the Inquisition at that time is full of contests between the Kings and 
Popes ; and we constantly find, on the part of the Holy See, a desire to restrain 
the Inquisition within the bounds of justice and humanity. The line of con- 
duct prescribed by the court of Rome was not always followed as it ought to 
have been ; thus we see the Popes compelled to receive a multitude of appeals, 
and mitigate the lot that would have befallen the appellants, if their cause had 
been definitely decided in Spain. We also see the Pope name the judge of 
appeal, at the solicitation of the Catholic sovereigns, who desired that causes 
should be finally decided in Spain : the first of these judges was Dr. Inigo 
Manrique, Archbishop of Seville. Nevertheless, at the end of a short time, the 
same Pope, in a Bull of the 2d of August, 1483, said that he had received new 
appeals, made by a great number of the Spaniards of Seville, who had not dared 
to address themselves to the judge of appeal for fear of being arrested. Such was 
then the excitement of the public mind; such was, at that time, the necessity 
of preventing injustice, or measures of undue severity. The Pope added, that 
some of those who had had recourse to his justice had already received the abso- 
lution of the Apostolical Penitentiary, and that others were about to receive it ; 
he afterwards complained that indulgences granted to divers accused persons had 
not been sufficiently respected at Seville ; in fine, after several other admoni- 
tions, he observed to Ferdinand and Isabella, that mercy towards the guilty was 
more pleasing to Grod than the severity which it was desired to use ; and he 
gave the example of the good Shepherd following the wandering sheep. He 
ended by exhorting the sovereigns to treat with mildness those who voluntarily 
confessed their faults, desiring them to allow them to reside at Seville, or in 
some other place they might choose; and to allow them the enjoyment of their 
property, as if they had not been guilty of the crime of heresy. 

Moreover, it is not to be supposed that the appeals admitted at Rome, and 
by virtue of which the lot of the accused was improved, were founded on errors 
of form and injustice committed in the application of the law. If the accused 
had recourse to Rome, it was not always to demand reparation for an injustice, 
but because they were sure of finding indulgence. We have a proof of this in 
the considerable number of Spanish refugees convicted at Rome of having 
fallen into J udaism. Two hundred and fifty of them were found at one time ; 
yet there was not one capital execution. Some penances were imposed on them, 
and when they were absolved, they were free to return home, without the least 
mark of ignominy. This took place at Rome in 1498. 

It is a remarkable thing that the Roman Inquisition was never known to 
pronounce the execution of capital punishment, although the Apostolic See was 
occupied during that time by Popes of extreme rigor and severity in all that 
relates to the civil administration. We find in all parts of Europe scaffolds 
prepared to punish crimes against religion ; scenes which sadden the soul were 
everywhere witnessed. Rome is an exception to the rule ; Rome, which it has 
been attempted to represent as a monster of intolerance and cruelty. It is true, 
that the Popes have not preached, like Protestants, universal toleration ; but 
facts show the difference between the Popes and Protestants. The Popes, 
armed with a tribunal of intolerance, have not spilled a drop of blood ; Protest- 
ants and philosophers have shed torrents. What advantage is it to the victim 
to hear his executioners proclaim toleration ? It is adding the bitterness of sar- 
casm to his punishment. The conduct of Rome in the use which she made of 
the Inquisition, is the best apology of Catholicity against those who attempt to 
stigmatize her as barbarous and sanguinary. In truth, what is there in com- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



209 



mon between Catholicity and the excessive severity employed in this place or 
that, in the extraordinary situation in which many rival races were placed, in 
the presence of danger which menaced one of them, or in the interest which the 
kings had in maintaining the tranquillity of their states, and securing their con- 
quests from all danger? I will not enter into a detailed examination of the con- 
duct of the Spanish Inquisition with respect to Judaizing Christians ; and I am 
far from thinking that the rigor which it employed against them was preferable 
to the mildness recommended and displayed by the Popes. What I wish to 
show here is, that rigor was the result of extraordinary circumstances, — the 
effect of the national spirit, and of the severity of customs in Europe at that 
time. Catholicity cannot be reproached with excesses committed for these 
different reasons. Still more, if we pay attention to the spirit which prevails 
in all the instructions of the Popes relating to the Inquisition ; if we observe 
their manifest inclination to range themselves on the side of mildness, and to 
suppress the marks of ignominy with which the guilty, as well as their fami- 
lies, were stigmatized, we have a right to suppose that, if the Popes had not 
feared to displease the kings too much, and to excite divisions which might 
have been fatal, their measures would have been carried still further. If we 
recollect the negotiations which took place with respect to the noisy affair of 
the claims of the Cortes of Aragon, we shall see to which side the court of Rome 
leaned. 

As we are speaking of intolerance with regard to the Judaizers, let us say a 
few words as to the disposition of Luther towards the Jews. Does it not seem 
that the pretended reformer, the founder of independence of thought, the furi- 
ous declaimer against the oppression and tyranny of the Popes, should have 
been animated with the most humane sentiments towards that people ? No 
doubt the eulogists of this chieftain of Protestantism ought to think thus also. 
I am sorry for them ; but history will not allow us to partake of this delusion. 
According to all appearances, if the apostate monk had found himself in the 
place of Torquemada, the Judaizers would not have been in a better position. 
What, then, was the system advised by Luther, according to Seckendorf, one 
of his apologists ? " Their synagogues ought to be destroyed, their houses 
pulled down, their prayer-books, the Talmud, and even the books of the Old 
Testament, to be taken from them ; their rabbis ought to be forbidden to teach, 
and be compelled to gain their livelihood by hard labor." The Inquisition, at 
least, did not proceed against the J ews, but against the J udaizers ; that is, 
against those who, after being converted to Christianity, relapsed into their 
errors, and added sacrilege to their apostacy, by the external profession of a 
creed which they detested in secret, and which they profaned by the exercise 
of their old religion. But Luther extended his severity to the Jews themselves ; 
so that, according to his doctrines, no reproach can be made against the sove- 
reign who expelled the Jews from their dominions. 

The Moors and the Mooriscoes no less occupied the attention of the Inquisi- 
tion at that time; and all that has been said on the subject of the Jews may 
be applied to them with some modifications. They were also an abhorred race 
— a race which had been contended with for eight centuries. When they 
retained their religion, the Moors inspired hatred; when they abjured it, mis- 
trust; the Popes interested themselves in their favor also in a peculiar manner. 
We ought to remark a Bull issued in 1530, which is expressed in language 
quite evangelical : it is there said, that the ignorance of these nations is one of 
the principal causes of their faults and errors; the first thing to be done to 
render their conversion solid and sincere was, according to the recommendation 
contained in this Bull, to endeavor to enlighten their minds with sound doctrine. 

It will be said that the Pope granted to Charles V. the Bull which released 
him from the oath taken in the Cortes of Saragossa in the year 1519; an oath ; 
27 s2 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



by which he had engaged not to make any change with respect to the Moors; 
whereby, it is said, the Emperor was enabled to complete their expulsion. But, 
we must observe, that the Pope for a long time resisted that concession; and, 
that if he at length complied with the wishes of the Emperor, it was only 
because he thought that the expulsion of the Moors was indispensable to secure 
the tranquillity of the kingdom. Whether this was true or not, the Emperor, 
and not the Pope, was the better judge; the latter, placed at a great distance, 
could not know the real state of things in detail. Moreover, it was not the 
Spanish monarch alone who thought so; it is related that Francis I., when a 
prisoner at Madrid, one day conversing with Charles V., told him that tran- 
quillity would never be established in Spain, if the Moors and Mooriscoes were 
not expelled. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

SECOND EPOCH OF THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 

It has been said that Philip II. founded a new Inquisition in Spain, more 
terrible than that of the Catholic sovereigns; at the same time the Inquisition 
of Ferdinand and Isabella receives a certain degree of indulgence, which is 
refused to that of their successors. At the very outset, we find an important 
historical mistake in this assertion. Philip did not establish a new Inquisition; 
he maintained that which the Catholic sovereigns had left him, and which 
Charles V., his father and predecessor, had particularly recommended to him 
by will. The Committee of the Cortes of Cadiz, in the project for the abolition 
of the tribunal of the Inquisition, excuses the conduct of the Catholic sove- 
reigns, and blames with severity that of Philip II. ; it attempts to make all the 
fault and odium fall on that prince. An illustrious French writer, very recently 
treating of this important question, has allowed himself to be led into the same 
errors, with that candor which sometimes accompanies genius. " There were/' 
says M. Lacordaire, " in the Spanish Inquisition, two solemn periods, which 
must not be confounded; the one at the end of the fifteenth century, under 
Ferdinand and Isabella, before the Moors were expelled from Granada, their 
last asylum; the other, in the middle of the sixteenth, under Philip II., when 
Protestantism threatened to propagate itself in Spain. The Committee of the 
'Cortes has perfectly distinguished these two epochs; and while it stigmatizes 
the Inquisition of Philip II., expresses itself with moderation with respect to 
that of Ferdinand and Isabella." After these words the writer quotes a text, 
where it is affirmed that Philip II. was the real founder of the Inquisition ; if 
that institution attained in the end to a high degree of power, it was owing, it 
says, to the refined policy of that prince. We read, a little further on, that 
Philip II. was the inventor of the auto-da-fe, to terrify heretics; and that the 
first of these bloody spectacles was seen at Seville in 1559. (Memoir e pour le 
retablissenient de V Ordre des Freres Precheurs, chap, vi.) Setting aside the 
historical mistake with respect to the auto-da-fes, it is well known that neither 
the sanbenitos nor the fagots were the invention of Philip II. Such mistakes 
easily escape a writer who is satisfied with alluding to a fact incidentally ; if we 
bring forward this one, it is because it contains an accusation against a mo- 
narch to whom, for a long time, too little justice has been done. Philip II. 
continued the work which had been begun by his predecessors; if they are 
excused, he ought not to be treated with greater severity. Ferdinand and 
Isabella directed the Inquisition against the apostate Jews; why could not 
Philip II. avail himself of it against Protestants? But I shall be told he 
abused his right and carried rigor to excess. Certainly there was not more 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



211 



indulgence in the times of Ferdinand and Isabella. Are the numerous execu- 
tions at Seville and other places forgotten ? Or what Mariana says in his 
history, and the public measures taken by the Popes for the purpose of check- 
ing the excessive severity? The words quoted against Philip II. are taken 
from the work called La Inquicition sin mascura (the Inquisition unveiled,) 
published in Spain in 1811. We may judge of the value of this authority, 
when we know that the author of the book was distinguished till his death by 
a deep hatred to the Spanish kings. The book bears the name of Nathanael 
Jomtob; but the real author is a well-known Spaniard, who, in his latter writ- 
ings, seems to have undertaken to avenge, by his unbounded exaggerations and 
furious invectives, all that he had previously attacked; a writer who assails, 
with an intolerable partiality, all that presents itself before him — religion, 
country, classes of society, individuals, and opinions — insulting and tearing to 
pieces all, as if he had been seized with a sally of passion, and not even sparing 
the men of his own party. Is it, then, surprising that this writer regarded 
Philip II. as Protestants and philosophers do, that is, as a monarch placed on 
the earth for the disgrace and misfortune of humanity, — a monster of Machia- 
vellianism, anxious to diffuse darkness, in order to maintain himself in safety 
in his cruelty and perfidy? I will not undertake to justify, on all points, the 
policy of Philip II. ; I will not deny that there are exaggerations in the eulo- 
giums which some Spanish writers have given to that prince. But, on the other 
hand, it cannot be doubted, that Protestants and the political enemies of 
Philip II. have ever been careful to denounce him. And do you know why 
Protestants have done this ? It is because it was he who prevented Protestant- 
ism from penetrating into Spain; it was he who, at that period of agitation, 
maintained the cause of Catholicity. Let us set aside the great events of the 
rest of Europe, of which each one will judge as he pleases; let us limit our- 
selves to Spain. We do not fear to assert, that the introduction of Protestant- 
ism into that country was imminent and inevitable without the system which 
he pursued. Whether Philip used the Inquisition for political purposes, in 
certain cases, is not the question we have to examine here ; but at least it must 
be acknowledged that it was not a mere instrument of ambitious projects; it 
was an institution strengthened and maintained in presence of an imminent 
danger. 

It appears, from the proceedings of the Inquisition at this time, that Pro- 
testantism began to spread in an incredible manner in Spain ; eminent ecclesias- 
tics, monks, nuns, seculars of distinction, in a word, individuals of the most 
influential classes, were attached to the new errors. Could the efforts of Pro- 
testants to introduce their creed into Spain remain altogether unproductive, 
when they employed every stratagem in their ardor to introduce their books? 
They went so far as to place their prohibited writings in casks of Champagne 
and Burgundy wine, with so much art as to deceive the custom-house men : 
thus wrote the Spanish Ambassador at Paris. 

To perceive the whole danger, it is enough to observe with attention the state 
of minds in Spain at this time ; besides, incontestable facts come in support of 
conjectures. The Protestants, taking great care to declaim against abuses, 
represented themselves as reformers, and labored to draw to their side all who 
were animated by an ardent desire for reform. This desire for reform had ex- 
isted for a long time in the Church ; but with some it was inspired by bad inten- 
tions ; in other words, the specious name of reform concealed the real intention 
of many, which was to destroy. At the same time, with some sincere Catholics, 
this desire, although pure in principle, went to imprudent zeal, and reached an 
ill-regulated ardor. It is probable that such zeal, carried to too great an extent, 
was, with many, changed into acrimony ; thence a certain facility in receiving 
the insidious suggestions of the enemies of the Church. Many people who had 



212 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



begun with indiscreet zeal, perhaps fell into exaggeration, then into bitterness, 
and finally into heresy. Spain was not exempt from this disposition of mind, 
from whence the course of events might have drawn very bitter results, if Pro- 
testantism had obtained any footing on our soil. We know that the Spaniards 
at the Council of Trent distinguished themselves by their reforming zeal, and 
their boldness in expressing their opinions. Let us remark, moreover, that reli- 
gious discord being once introduced into a country, minds are excited by dis- 
putes, they are irritated by frequent shocks, and it sometimes happens that 
respectable men precipitate themselves into excesses which they would have 
abhorred a short time before. It is difficult to say with precision what would 
have happened if the rigor had been at all relaxed on this point. Certain it is, 
that, when reading some passages of Luis Vives, of Arias Montanus, of Car- 
ranza, and of the consultation of Melchior Cano, we can fancy we find, at the 
bottom of their minds, a sort of disquietude and agitation, which may best be 
compared to those heavy murmurings which announce from afar the commence- 
ment of a tempest. 

The famous trial of the Archbishop of Toledo, Fray Bartolome de Carranza, 
is one of the facts which are most frequently cited to show the arbitrary nature 
of the proceedings of the Spanish Inquisition. We certainly cannot see without 
emotion, shut up in prison for many years, one of the most learned men in 
Europe, the Archbishop of Toledo, honored with the intimate confidence of 
Philip II. and the Queen of England, allied in friendship with the most distin- 
guished men of the time, and known to all Christendom by the brilliant part 
which he had played at the Council of Trent. The process lasted seventeen 
years; and although the cause was carried to Rome, where the Archbishop 
must have found powerful friends, a declaration of innocence in his favor could 
not be obtained. Without staying to notice the many incidents of a cause so 
long and so complicated, without insisting on the more or less reason which the 
discourses and writings of Carranza may have afforded for suspicions against his 
faith, I am quite certain, in my own mind, that, in his own conscience and be- 
fore G-od ; he was perfectly innocent. Here is a proof that places my opinion 
beyond a doubt. A short time after the judgment was given, he fell ill ; his 
malady was supposed to be mortal, and the sacraments were administered to 
him. At the moment of receiving the Viaticum, in the presence of a large 
concourse, he declared, in the most solemn manner, that he had never left the 
Catholic faith, that his conscience acquitted him of all the accusations made 
against him j and he confirmed his declaration by calling to witness God, in 
whose presence he was, whom he was about to receive under the most sacred 
species, and before whose awful tribunal he was in a few moments to appear. 
This pathetic act drew tears from all present; all suspicions against him were dis- 
sipated as by a breath, and a new sympathy was added to that which his continued 
misfortunes had excited. The Sovereign Pontiff did not doubt the sincerity of 
the declaration, as a magnificent epitaph was placed upon his tomb, which cer- 
tainly would not have been allowed if there had been the least doubt of it. It 
certainly would be rash to refuse to believe a declaration so explicit from the 
mouth of such a man as Carranza, expiring, and in the presence of Jesus Christ 
Himself. 

After having paid this tribute to the knowledge, virtues, and misfortunes of 
Carranza, it remains for us to examine whether, whatever may have been the 
purity of his conscience, it can be justly said that his trial was a perfidious 
intrigue, carried on by envy and hatred. This is not the place to examine the 
immense procedure in this case ; but since allusion has been made to it to con- 
demn Philip II. and the adversaries of Carranza, I wish, in my turn, to make 
some observations, to endeavor to place the affair in its proper light. In the 
first place, is it not astonishing that a trial devoid of all foundation should have 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 213 

had so extraordinary a duration ? At least there must have been some appear- 
ance of it. Besides, if the cause had been decided in Spain, the length of the 
trial might not have been so extraordinary. But it was not so ; the cause re- 
mained pending in Rome many years. Were the judges so blind or so wicked 
that they could not discover the calumny, or that they wanted the virtue to 
destroy it, supposing it to have been as clear and evident as it has been pre- 
tended ? It may be replied to this, that the intrigues of Philip II., who was 
determined on the destruction of the Archbishop, prevented the truth from 
appearing j in proof of this assertion, have we not the difficulties which the king 
made to allow the prisoner to be transferred to Rome ? It was necessary, it is 
said, for Pius V. to effect this by the threat of excommunication. I will not 
deny that Philip II. attempted to aggravate the situation of the Archbishop, 
and wished for a sentence little favorable to the illustrious accused. Yet, before 
deciding that the conduct of the king was criminal, we must know whether he 
acted thus from personal resentment, from conviction, or from the suspicion that 
the Archbishop inclined towards Lutheranism. Carranza, before his disgrace, 
was highly favored and esteemed by Philip, as appears from the missions which 
were confided to him in England, and from his elevation to the first ecclesias- 
tical dignity in Spain. How, then, can we presume that so much good-will was 
converted on a sudden into personal and violent hatred ? Is it not, at least, 
necessary that history should afford a fact in support of this conjecture ? Now, 
I find this nowhere in history, nor am I aware that others have done so. If 
Philip took so decided a part against the Archbishop, it was evidently because 
he believed, or strongly suspected him of being heretical. In that case, Philip 
may have been rash, imprudent — all that you please; but it cannot be said 
that, in the pursuit, he was moved by the spirit of vengeance, or by low ani- 
mosity. 

Other men of the time were equally accused. Among the rest, Melchior 
Cano. Carranza himself seemed to be suspicious ; he bitterly complained that 
Melchior Cano had ventured to say that the Archbishop was as heretical as 
Luther. But Salazar de Mendoza, when relating the fact in the life of Car- 
ranza, asserts that Cano, hearing this, openly denied it, saying, that he had said 
nothing of the kind. Indeed, the mind is easily inclined to believe him ; men 
with intellects as favored as his, have, in their own dignity, too powerful a pre- 
servative against baseness, to allow them to be suspected of playing the infamous 
part of calumniators. 

I do not believe that it is necessary to seek for the cause of the misfortunes 
of Carranza in private hatred or jealousy; it is found in the critical circum- 
stances of the time, and in the character of this illustrious man himself. The 
grave symptoms which produced alarm lest Protestantism might make prose- 
lytes in Spain ; the efforts of the Protestants to introduce their books and emis- 
saries there ; the experience of what happened in other countries, and particu- 
larly in the kingdom of France, created so much dread in men's minds, rendered 
them so fearful and mistrustful, that the least suspicion of error, above all, in 
persons elevated in dignity or distinguished for their knowledge, occasioned dis- 
quietude and apprehension. We are aware of the hot disputes which took place 
with respect to the Polyglot of Antwerp and Arias Montanus, and we are not 
ignorant of the sufferings of the famous Fray Luis de Leon, and some other 
illustrious men of that time. Another conjuncture which contributed to push 
things to extremes was, the political situation of Spain with respect to strangers. 
The Spanish monarchy had too many enemies and rivals for her not to have 
reason to fear that heresy, in the hands of her adversaries, would become a 
means of introducing discord and civil war into her bosom. These causes united, 
naturally rendered Philip suspicious and mistrustful ; the hatred of heresy com- 
bining in his mind with the desire of self-preservation, he showed himself severe 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



and inexorable with respect to all that could affect the purity of the Catholic 
faith in his empire. 

On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the character of Carranza 
was not exactly what was required, in such critical times, to avoid all dangerous 
wanderings. We perceive, in reading his commentaries on the Catechism, that 
he was a man of acute penetration, of vast erudition, of profound learning, of 
severe character, and of a heart generous and frank. He spoke his thoughts 
without circumlocution, without regard to the displeasure which his words might 
give to this person or that. When he believed that he had discovered an abuse, 
he pointed it out and condemned it openly, wherein he resembled his supposed 
adversary, Melchior Cano, in more features than one. The accusations against 
him in the trial were founded, not only on his writings, but also on some of his 
sermons and private conversations. I know not to what extent he exceeded the 
just limits j but I hesitate not to affirm, that a man who wrote in the tone which 
we find in his works, must have expressed himself viva voce with great force, 
and perhaps with excessive boldness. It must be added, to speak the whole 
truth, that when treating of justification, in his commentaries on the Catechism, 
he does not explain himself with all the clearness desirable, and is wanting in 
the simplicity required by the unhappy circumstances of the times. Men versed 
in this delicate matter know how delicate certain points are. These points were 
then the subject of the errors of Germany; and it maybe easily imagined how 
much the attention must have been fixed on the words of Carranza, and how 
alarming the least shadow of ambiguity must have been. It is certain that, at 
Rome he was not acquitted of all the accusations ; he was compelled to abjure 
a series of propositions, with respect to which he was judged liable to suspicion; 
and some penances were imposed on him. Carranza on his death-bed protested 
his innocence ; but he took care to declare that he did not regard the sentence 
of the Pope as unjust. The explanation of the enigma is this : the innocence 
of the heart is not always accompanied by the prudence of the lips. 

I have dwelt upon this famous cause because it involves considerations which 
strikingly exhibit the spirit of the age. These considerations have, besides, the 
advantage of showing the truth in its proper light, and prevent every thing 
being explained according to the wretched measure of the malice of men. There 
is unhappily a tendency to explain all in this way; and it may be truly said, 
that men too often give a just foundation for it ; yet, whenever there is no evi- 
dent necessity to do so, we ought to abstain from condemnation. The picture 
of the history of humanity is sombre enough in itself ; let us not take pleasure 
in darkening it still more by new stains. We often call crime that which was 
only ignorance. Man is inclined to evil; but he is not less subject to error, and 
error is not always culpable. 

Moreover, I believe that to Protestants themselves were owing the rigor and 
anxious mistrust which the Inquisition of Spain displayed at that time. They 
excited a religious revolution ; and it is a constant law, that all revolutions 
either destroy the power assailed, or render it more harsh and severe. What 
before was looked upon as indifferent, is now considered as suspected ; and what, 
in all other circumstances, would only have appeared a fault, is now regarded 
as a crime. Men are in continual dread of seeing liberty converted into licen- 
tiousness ; and as revolutions destroy all, while they profess to reform, whoever 
ventures to speak of reform, runs the risk of being blamed as a disturber. Even 
prudent conduct is stigmatized as hypocritical caution ; frank and sincere lan- 
guage is termed insolence and dangerous suggestion ; reserve is a concealment 
full of cunning ; even silence itself assumes a meaning — it becomes alarming 
dissimulation. We have seen so many things come to pass in our days, that we 
are placed in an incomparable situation easily to understand the various phases 
of the history of humanity. It is an undoubted fact, that Protestantism pro- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



215 



duced a reaction in Spain. Its errors and excesses were the reason why the 
ecclesiastical and civil power infinitely restrained the liberty which had been 
previously enjoyed in all that related to religion. Spain was preserved from the 
Protestant doctrines, when all the probabilities were in favor of their being 
introduced there, in one way or another. It is clear that this could not be 
obtained without extraordinary efforts. Spain, at that time, appears to me like 
a place besieged by -a powerful enemy, where the leaders continually watched, 
not only against attacks from without, but also against treason from within. I 
will confirm these observations by an example, which will serve for many others. 
Let us remember what took place with respect to Bibles in the vulgar tongue ; 
we shall then have an idea of what passed with relation to all the rest, accord- 
ing to the natural order of things. I have before me a testimony of what I 
have just said, as respectable as it is worthy of interest — that of Carranza him- 
self. Hear what he says in his prologue to his commentaries on the Christian 
Catechism : " Before the heresies of Luther had come from the infernal regions 
to the light of this world, I do not know that the Holy Scriptures in the vulgar 
tongue were anywhere forbidden. In Spain, Bibles were translated into it by 
order of the Catholic sovereigns, at the time when the Moors and Jews were 
allowed to live among the Christians according to their own law. After the 
expulsion of the Jews from Spain, the judges of religion found that some of 
those who had been converted to our holy faith instructed their children in 
Judaism, and taught them the ceremonies of the law of Moses by means of 
those Bibles in the vulgar tongue, which they took care to have printed in Italy, 
in the town of Ferrara. This is the real cause why Bibles in the vulgar tongue 
were forbidden in Spain ; but the possession and reading of them were always 
allowed to colleges and monasteries, as well as to persons of distinction above 
all suspicion." Carranza continues to give, in a few words, the history of these 
prohibitions in Germany, France, and other countries; then he adds: "In 
Spain, which was, and still is, by the grace and goodness of God, pure from the 
cockle, care was taken to forbid generally all the translations of the Scriptures 
in the vulgar tongue, in order to prevent strangers having an opportunity of 
holding controversy with simple and ignorant persons, and also because they 
had, and still have, experience of certain particular cases, and of the errors 
which began to arise in Spain from the ill-understood reading of certain passages 
of the Bible. What I have just stated is the real history of what took place ; 
this is why the Bible in the vulgar tongue was prohibited." 

This curious passage of Carranza shows us, in a few words, the progress of 
things. At first there was no prohibition ; but the abuse committed by the 
Jews provoked one, although still confined, as we have just seen, within certain 
limits, xlfterwards came the Protestants, upsetting all Europe by means of 
their Bibles ; Spain is threatened with the introduction of the new errors ; it is 
discovered that some persons have been misled by the false interpretation of 
certain passages of the Bible ; they are compelled to take away this weapon 
from these strangers, who attempt to use it to seduce simple people : from that 
time the prohibition becomes rigorous and general. 

To return to Philip H., let us not forget that this monarch was one of the 
firmest defenders of the Catholic Church ; and that in him was personified the 
policy of the faithful ages, amid the vertigo which, under the impulse of Pro- 
testantism, had taken possession of European policy. If the Catholic Church, 
amid these great perturbations, could reckon on a powerful protection from the 
princes of the earth, it was in great measure owing to Philip II. This age 
was critical and decisive in Europe. If it is true that he was unfortunate in 
Flanders, it is not less undoubted that his power and ability afforded a counter- 
poise to the Protestant power, which prevented it making itself master of Eu- 
rope. Even supposing that the efforts of Philip had only the result of gaining 



216 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



time, by breaking the first shock of the Protestant policy, this was not a slight 
service rendered to the Catholic Church, then attacked on so many sides. What 
would have happened to Europe, if Protestantism had been introduced into 
Spain as into France ? if the Huguenots had been able to count on the assist- 
ance of the Peninsula ? And what would have happened in Italy, if she had 
not been held in respect by the power of Philip ? Would not the sectaries of 
Germany have succeeded in introducing their errors there ? Here I appeal to 
all men who are acquainted with history, whether, if Philip had abandoned his 
much-decried policy, the Catholic religion would not have run the risk of find- 
ing itself, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, under the hard neces- 
sity of existing only as a tolerated religion in the generality of the kingdoms of 
Europe ? Now, we know what this toleration is worth to the Catholic Church ; 
England has told us for centuries ; Prussia shows us at this moment, and Russia 
adds her testimony in a manner still more lamentable. Such is the point of 
view in which we must consider Philip II. One is forced to allow that, consi- 
dered in this way, that prince is a great historical personage, — one of those who 
have left the deepest marks on the policy of the age which followed, — one of 
those who exert the greatest influence after them on the course of events. 

Spaniards, who anathematize the founder of the Escurial, have you, then, for- 
gotten our history, or do you esteem it of no value ? Do you stigmatize him 
as an odious tyrant ? Do you not know that, in denying his glory, in covering 
it with ignominy, you efface a feature of your own glory, and throw into the 
mud the diadem which encircled the brows of Ferdinand and Isabella ? If you 
cannot pardon Philip II. for having sustained the Inquisition, — if that rea- 
son alone obliges you to load his name with execration, do the same with his 
illustrious father, Charles V. ; and, going back to Isabella of Castille, write 
also on the list of the tyrants and scourges of humanity that name which was 
venerated by both worlds, and which is the emblem of the glory and power of 
the Spanish monarchy. They all took part in the fact which excites your in- 
dignation ; do not curse some, while you lavish hypocritical indulgence on the 
others. If that indulgence is found in your words, it is that the feeling of na- 
tionality which beats in your bosom compels you to partiality — to inconsistency; 
you recoil when you are about to efface the glories of Spain with a stroke of 
the pen — to wither all her laurels — to deny your country. We have nothing 
left, unfortunately, but great recollections ; let us at least avoid despising them : 
these recollections are, in a nation, like the titles of ancient nobility in a fallen 
family; they raise the mind, they fortify the soul in adversity; and, nourishing 
hope in the bottom of the heart, they serve to prepare what is to come. 

The immediate effect of the introduction of Protestantism into Spain would 
have been, as in other countries, civil war ; and this war would have been more 
fatal to us than to other people, because the circumstances were much more 
critical for us. The unity of the Spanish monarchy could not have resisted the 
shocks and disturbances of intestine dissension ; the different parts were so 
heterogeneous among themselves, and were so slightly united, that the least 
blow would have parted them. The laws and manners of the kingdoms of Na- 
varre and Aragon were very different from those of Castille ; a lively feeling of 
independence, supported by frequent meetings of their own Cortes, was kept 
alive in the hearts of those unconquered nations ; they would certainly have 
availed themselves of the first opportunity to shake off a yoke which was not 
pleasing to them. Moreover, in the other provinces, factions were not wanting 
to distract the country. The monarchy would have been miserably divided at a 
time when it was necessary to make head in the affairs of Europe, Africa, and 
America. The Moors were still in sight of our coasts ; the Jews had not had 
time to forget Spain : certainly both would have availed themselves of the con- 
juncture to raise themselves by means of our discords. On the policy of Philip 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



217 



depended not only the tranquillity, but perhaps even the existence of the Spa- 
nish monarchy. He is now accused of having been a tyrant ; if he had pur- 
sued another course, he would have been taxed with incapacity and weakness. 

One of the most unjust attacks of the enemies of religion against her friends 
is, to attribute bad faith to them, to accuse them of having in every thing false 
intentions, tortuous and interested views. "When they speak of the Machiavel- 
lianism of Philip II., they suppose that the Inquisition, while apparently only 
religious in its object, was, in reality, an obedient instrument of policy in the 
hands of a crafty monarch. Nothing is more specious to the man in whose 
eyes history is only a matter for piquant and malicious observations ; but no- 
thing is more false according to facts. Some people, seeing in the Inquisition 
an extraordinary tribunal, have not been able to imagine the existence of that 
exceptional tribunal, without supposing, in the monarch who sustained and en- 
couraged it, profound reasons, and views carried much further than appears on 
the surface of things. They have not been willing to see that an epoch has its 
spirit, its own manner of regarding things, its own system of action, both in 
doing good and in preventing evil. During those times, when all the nations of 
Europe appealed to fire and sword to decide questions of religion, when Pro- 
testants and Catholics burnt their adversaries, when England, France, and Ger- 
many assisted at the bloodiest scenes, to bring a heretic to the scaffold was a 
natural and customary thing, which gave no shock to prevailing ideas. We 
feel our hair grow stiff on our heads at the mere idea of burning a man alive. 
Placed in society where the religious sentiment is considerably diminished; 
accustomed to live among men who have a different religion, and sometimes 
none at all ; we cannot bring ourselves to believe that it could be at that time 
quite an ordinary thing to see heretics or the impious led to punishment. But, 
if we read the authors of the time, we shall see the immense difference on this 
point between their manners and ours ; and we shall remark, that our language 
of moderation and toleration would not even have been understood by the man of 
the sixteenth century. 

Do you know what Carranza himself, who suffered so much from the Inqui- 
sition, thought of this matter ? Every time that he has occasion to touch on 
this point in the work which I have quoted, he expresses the ideas of his time, 
without even staying to prove them j he gives them as undoubted principles. 
In England, with Queen Mary, he did not fear to express his opinions as to the 
rigor with which heretics ought to be treated; and he was certainly far from 
suspecting that his name would one day be made use of to attack this intole- 
rance. Kings and peoples, ecclesiastics and seculars, were all agreed on this 
point. What would be said now-a-days of a king who would carry with his own 
hands the wood to burn heretics, and would condemn blasphemers to have their 
tongues pierced with a hot iron ? Now, the first of these things is related of 
St. Ferdinand, and we know that the second* was done by St. Louis. We now 
exclaim in seeing Philip II. assisting at an auto-da-fe; but, if we consider that 
the court, the great men, all that was most select in society, surrounded the 
king on these occasions, we shall understand that, if this spectacle is horrible 
and intolerable to us, it was not so in the eyes of those men, widely different 
from us in ideas and feelings. And let it not be said that they were forced 
there by the will of the monarch, — that they were compelled to obey : this was 
not the effect of the monarch's will ; it was only a consequence of the spirit of 
the age. No monarch would have been sufficiently powerful to perform such' a 
ceremony, if the spirit of the age had been opposed to it ; besides, no monarch 
is so hard and insensible as not to feel the influence of the times in which he 
lives. Suppose the most absolute despot of our time, Napoleon, at the height 
of his power, or the present Emperor of Russia, and see whether they could 
thus violate the manners of the age. 

28 T 



218 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Ail anecdote is related which is little adapted to confirm the opinion of those 
who assert that the Inquisition was a political instrument in the hands of Philip. 
As it paints in a curious and interesting manner the customs and ideas of the 
age, I will insert it here. Philip II. held his court at Madrid; a certain 
preacher, in a sermon delivered in presence of the king, advanced, that sove- 
reigns had an absolute power over the persons as well as over the property of their 
subjects. The proposition was not of a nature to displease a king ; the preacher 
at one blow relieved kings from all control over the exercise of their power. 
Now, it seems that at that time all men were not in such abject subjection to 
despotic control as we have been led to believe ; some one was found to denounce 
to the Inquisition the words in which the preacher had not been ashamed to 
flatter the absolute power of kings. Surely the orator had chosen a secure 
asylum ; and our readers may well suppose that this denunciation coming into 
collision with the power of Philip, the Inquisition would have maintained a 
prudent silence. Yet it was not so : the Inquisition made an inquiry, found 
the proposition contrary to sound doctrine, and the preacher, who was perhaps 
far from expecting such a reward, had divers penances imposed on him, and was 
condemned to retract publicly his proposition in the same place where he had 
made it. The retractation took place with all the ceremonies of a juridical pro- 
ceeding ; the preacher declared that he retracted his proposition as erroneous ; 
he explained the reasons by reading, as he had been directed, the following 
words, well worthy of remark: " Indeed, messieurs, kings have no other power 
over their subjects than that which is given to them by the divine and human law ; 
they have none proceeding from their own free and absolute will." This is re- 
lated by D. Antonio Perez, as may be seen at length in the note which corre- 
sponds to the present chapter. We know, moreover, that he was not a fanatical 
partisan of the Inquisition. 

This took place at the time which some persons never mention without stig- 
matizing it with the words obscurantism, tyranny, and superstition. Yet I 
doubt whether, at a time nearer to us — that, for example, when it is asserted 
that light and liberty dawned on Spain under the reign of Charles III. — a 
public and solemn condemnation of despotism would have been carried so far. 
This condemnation, at the time of Philip II., did as much honor to the tribunal 
which ordered it as to the monarch who consented to it. 

With respect to knowledge, it is a calumny to say that a design was formed 
to maintain and perpetuate ignorance. Certainly the conduct of Philip does 
not indicate such a design, when we see this prince, not content with favoring 
the great enterprise of the Polyglot of Antwerp, recommending to Arias Mon- 
tanus to devote to the purchase of chosen works, printed or manuscript, the 
money which would revert to the printer Plantinus, to whom the king 
had advanced a large sum to aid in the enterprise. This chosen collection was 
to be placed in the library of the monastery of the Escurial, which was then 
built. The king had also charged Don Francis de Alaba, his ambassador in 
France, to collect in that kingdom the best books which it was possible for him to 
procure, as he himself says in his letter to Arias Montanus. No; the history 
of Spain, with respect to intolerance in religious matters, is not so black as it 
, has been represented. When foreigners reproach us with cruelty, we will reply 
' that, when Europe was stained with blood by civil wars, Spain was at peace. 
As to the number of persons who perished on the scafFold or died in exile, we 
challenge the two nations who claim to be at the head of civilization, France 
and England, to show us their statistics on that subject at the same time, and 
io compare them with ours : we do not fear the comparison. 

In proportion as the danger of the introduction of Protestantism into Spain 
diminished, so did the rigor of the Inquisition. We may observe, moreover, 
that the procedure of that tribunal always became milder, in accordance with 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



219 



the spirit of criminal legislation in the other countries of Europe. Thus we 
see the auto-da-fe becoming more rare as we approach our own times, so that, 
at the end of the last century, the Inquisition was only a shadow of what it 
had been. It is useless to insist on this point, which nobody denies, and on 
which we are in unison with the most ardent enemies of that tribunal ; and this 
it is which, in our eyes, proves, in the most convincing manner, that we must 
seek in the ideas and manners of the time, what people have attempted to find 
in the cruelty, in the wickedness, or in the ambition of men. If the doctrines 
of those who plead for the abolition of the punishment of death are carried 
into effect, posterity, when reading the executions of our time, will be seized 
with the same horror with which we view the punishment of times past, and 
the gibbet and the guillotine will figure in the same rank as the ancient 
Quemaderos. (26) 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THEMSELVES. 

Religious institutions are another of those points whereon Protestantism 
and Catholicity are in complete opposition to each other : the first abhors, the 
second loves them ; the one destroys them, the other establishes and encourages 
them. One of the first acts of Protestantism, whenever it is introduced, is to 
attack religious institutions by its doctrines and its acts; it labors to destroy 
them immediately ; one would say that the pretended Reformation cannot behold 
without irritation those holy abodes, which continually remind it of the igno- 
minious apostacy of its founder. Religious vows, especially that of chastity, 
have been the subject of the most cruel invectives on the part of Protestants; 
but it must be observed, that what is said now, and what has been repeated for 
three centuries, is only the echo of the first voice which was raised in Gler- 
many • and what was that voice ? It was the voice of a monk without modesty, 
who penetrated into the sanctuary and carried away a victim. All the pomp 
of learning employed to combat a sacred dogma is insufficient to hide so impure 
an origin. Through the excitement of the felse prophet we perceive the impure 
flames which devour his heart. 

Let us observe in passing, that the same thing took place with respect to the 
celibacy of the clergy. Protestants, from the beginning, could not endure this; 
they threw off the mask, and condemned it without disguise; they attempted 
to combat it with a certain ostentation of learning; but, at the bottom of all 
their declamation, what do we find ? The clamor of a priest who has forgotten 
his duty ; who strives against the remorse of his conscience, and endeavors to 
hide his shame by diminishing the horror of the scandal by the allegations of 
falsehood. If such conduct had been pursued by the Catholics, all the arms of 
ridicule would have been employed to cover them with contempt, to stamp it, 
as it deserves, with the brand of infamy ; but it was a man who declared deadly 
war against Catholicity : that was enough to turn away the contempt of philo- 
sophers, and find indulgence for the declamation of a monk whose first argu- 
ment against celibacy was, to profane his vows and consummate a sacrilege. 

The rest of the disturbers of that age imitated the example of so worthy a 
master. All demanded and required from Scripture and philosophy a veil to 
cover their weakness and baseness. Just punishment! blindness of the mind 
was the result of corruption of the heart ; impudence sought and obtained the 
companionship of error. Never is the mind more vile than when, to excuse a 
fault, it becomes the accomplice of it; then it is not deceived, but prostituted. 

This hatred of religious institutions has been inherited by philosophy from 
Protestantism. This is the reason why all revolutions, excited and guided by 



220 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Protestants or philosophers, have been signalized by their intolerance towards 
the institutions themselves, and by their cruelty towards those who belonged to 
them. What the law could not do was completed by the dagger and the torch 
of the incendiary. What escaped the catastrophe was left to the slow punish- 
ment of misery and famine. On this point, as well as on many others, it is 
manifest that the infidel philosophy is the daughter of the Reformation. It is 
useless to seek for a more convincing proof of this than the parallel of the his- 
tories of both, in all that relates to the destruction of religious institutions; 
the same flattery of kings, the same exaggeration of the civil power, the same 
declamation against the pretended evil inflicted on society, the same calumnies ; 
we have only to change the names and the dates. And we must also remark 
this peculiarity, that, in this matter, the difference which, apparently, ought to 
have resulted from the progress of toleration and the softening of manners in 
recent times, has scarcely been felt. 

But is it true that religious institutions are as contemptible as they have been 
represented ? is it true that they do not even deserve attention, and that all the 
questions relating to them can be solved by merely pronouncing the word 
fanaticism ? Does not the man of observation, the real philosopher, find in 
them any thing worthy of attracting his attention ? It is difficult to believe 
that such was the nullity of these institutions, whose history is so grand, and 
which still preserve in their existence the promise of a great future. It is 
difficult to believe that such institutions are not worthy of attention in the 
highest degree, and that their study is wholly devoid of lively interest and 
solid profit. We see them appear at every epoch of Church history; their 
memorials and monuments are found every moment under our feet ; they are 
preserved in the regions of Asia, in the sands of Africa, in the cities and soli- 
tudes of America; in fine, when, after so much adversity, we see them more 
or less prosperous in the various countries of Europe, sending forth again fresh 
shoots in those lands where their roots had been the most deeply torn up, there 
naturally arises in the mind a spirit of curiosity to examine this phenomenon, 
to inquire what is the origin, the genius, and the character of these institutions. 
Those who love to descend into the heart of philosophical questions discover, at 
first sight, that there must be there an abundant mine of the most precious in- 
formation for the science of religion, of society, and of man. He who has read 
the lives of the ancient fathers of the desert without being touched, without 
feeling profound admiration, and being filled with grave and lofty thoughts-; he 
who, treading under his feet with indifference the ruins of an ancient abbey, 
has not called up in fancy the shades of the cenobites who lived and died there ; 
he who passes coldly through the corridors and cells of convents half demo- 
lished, and feels no recollections, and not even the curiosity to examine, — he 
may close the annals of history, and may cease to study the beautiful and the 
sublime. There exist for him no historical phenomena, no beauty, no sublimity; 
his mind is in darkness, his heart is in the dust. 

With the intention of hiding the intimate connection which subsists between 
religious institutions and religion herself, it has been said that she can exist 
without them. This is an incontrovertible truth, but abstract and wholly use- 
less — a barren and isolated assertion, which can throw no light upon science, 
nor serve as any practical guide — an insidious truth, which only tends entirely 
to change the whole state of the question, and persuade men that when reli- 
gious institutions are concerned, religion has nothing to do with the matter. 
There is here a gross sophism, which is too much employed, not only on this 
question, but on many others. This consists in replying to all difficulties by a 
proposition perfectly true in itself, but which has nothing to do with the ques- 
tion. By this means, attention is turned another way ; the palpable truth which 
is presented to the mind makes men wander from the principal object, and 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



221 



induces them to take that for a solution which is only a distraction. With 
respect, for example, to the support of the clergy and divine worship, it is said, 
" Temporals are altogether different from spirituals." When the ministers of 
religion are systematically calumniated, " Religion," they say, " is one thing, 
and her ministers are another." If it is wished to represent the conduct of 
Rome for many centuries as an uninterrupted chain of injustice, of corruption, 
and of invasion of right, all reply is anticipated by saying, " The supremacy of 
the Sovereign Pontiff has nothing to do with the vices of Popes or their ambi- 
tion." Reflections perfectly just, and truths palpable, no doubt, which are very 
useful in certain cases, but which writers of bad faith cunningly employ to con- 
ceal from the reader the real object they have in view. Such are the jugglers 
who attract the attention of the simple multitude on one side, while their com- 
panions perform their criminal operations on the other. 

Because a thing is not necessary to the existence of another, it does not fol- 
low that the first does not originate in the second, — does not find in the spirit 
of the latter its peculiar and permanent existence, and that a system of intimate 
and delicate relation does not subsist between them. The tree can subsist with- 
out flowers and fruits ; these can certainly fall without destroying the trunk ; 
but as long as the tree shall exist, will it ever cease to give proofs of its vigor 
and its beauty, and to offer its flowers to the eye, and its fruits to the taste ? 
The stream may constantly flow in its crystal bed without the green margin 
which embellishes its sides ; but while its source is not dried up — as long as the 
fertilizing water penetrates the ground, can its favored banks remain dry, bar- 
ren, without color and ornament? Let us apply these images to our subject. 
It is certain that religion can exist without religious communities, and that their 
ruin does not necessarily entail that of religion herself. More than once it has 
been seen that in countries where religious institutions have been destroyed, the 
Catholic faith has been long preserved. But it is not less certain, that there is 
a necessary dependence between them and religion ; that is, that she has given 
being to them, that she animates them with her spirit, and nourishes them with 
her substance : this is the reason why they immediately germinate wherever the 
Catholic faith takes root j and if they have been driven from a country where 
she continues to exist, they will reappear. Without alluding to the examples 
of other countries, do we not see this phenomenon take place in France in a 
remarkable manner ? The number of convents of men and women which are 
again established on the French soil is already very considerable. Who would 
have told the men of the Constituent Assembly, the Legislative Assembly, the 
Convention, that half a century should not elapse without seeing religious insti- 
tutions reappear and flourish in France, in spite of all their efforts to destroy 
even their memory ? " If that happen," they would have said, " it will be be- 
cause the revolution which we are making will not be allowed to triumph — 
because Europe will have again imposed despotism upon us ; then, and then 
only, will be witnessed in France — in Paris — in this capital of the Christian 
world — the re-establishment of religious institutions, that legacy of fanaticism 
and superstition, transmitted to us by the ideas and manners of an age which 
has passed away, never to return." 

Senseless men ! your revolution has triumphed ; you have conquered Europe ; 
the old principles of the French monarchy have been erased from legislation, 
institutions, and manners ; the genius of war has led your doctrines in triumph 
over Europe, and they were gilded by the rays of your glory. Your principles, 
all your recollections have again triumphed at a recent period ; they still live in 
all their force and pride, personified in some men who glory in being the heirs 
of what they call the glorious Revolution of '89 ; and yet, in spite of so many 
triumphs, although your revolution has only receded as much as was necessary the 
better to secure its conquests, religious institutions have again arisen — they ex- 



222 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



tend, they are propagated everywhere, and they regain an important place in the 
annals of our times. To prevent this revival, it would have been necessary to 
extirpate religion ; it was not enough to persecute her ; faith remained like a 
precious germ covered by stones and thorns ; Providence sends down a ray of 
that divine star which softens stones, and gives life and fertility j the tree rises 
again in all its beauty, in spite of the ruins which hindered its growth and de- 
velopment, and its leaves are immediately covered with charming blossoms : — 
behold the religious institutions which you thought were for ever annihilated ! 

The example which we have just mentioned clearly shows the truth of what 
we wish to establish, with respect to the intimate connection which exists be- 
tween religion and religious institutions. Church history furnishes proofs in 
support of this truth. Besides, the mere knowledge of religion, and of the 
nature of the institutions of which we speak, would suffice to prove it to us, 
even if we had not history and experience in our favor. 

The force of general prejudice on this subject is such, that it is necessary to 
descend to the root of things, to show the complete mistake of our adversaries. 
What are religious institutions considered generally ? Putting aside the differ- 
ences, the changes, the alterations necessarily produced by variety of times, 
countries, and other circumstances, we will say that a religious institute is a 
society of Christians living together, under certain rules, for the purpose of prac- 
tising the Gospel precepts. We include, in this definition, even the orders which 
are not bound by a vow. It will be seen that we have considered the religious 
institution in its most general sense, laying aside all that theologians and canon- 
ists say with respect to the conditions indispensable to constitute or complete its 
essence. We must, moreover, observe that we ought not to exclude from the 
honorable denomination of religious institutes, those associations which possess 
all the conditions except the vows. The Catholic religion is fertile enough to 
produce good by means and forms widely different. In the generality of reli- 
gious institutions, she has shown us what man can do by binding himself by a 
vow, for his whole life, to a holy abnegation of his own will ; but she has also 
wished to show us that, while leaving him at liberty, she could attach him by a 
variety of ties, and make him persevere until death, as if he had been obliged 
by a perpetual vow. The congregation of the oratory of St. Philip Neri, which 
is found in this latter category, is certainly worthy of figuring among religious 
institutions as one of the finest monuments of the Catholic Church. I am aware 
that the vow is comprised in the essence of religious institutes, as they are com- 
monly understood; but my only object now is, to vindicate this kind of associa- 
tion against Protestants. Now we know that they condemn indiscriminately, 
associations bound by vows and those which only consist of the permanent and 
free adhesion of the persons who compose them. All that has the form of a 
religious community is regarded by them with a look of anger. When they 
proscribed the religious orders, they included in the same fate those which had 
vows and those which had not. Consequently, when defending them, we must 
class them together. Moreover, this will not prevent our considering the vow 
in itself, and justifying it before the tribunal of philosophy. 

I do not imagine that it is necessary to say more to show that the object of 
religious institutions — that is, as we have just said, the putting in practice of 
the Gospel counsels — is in perfect uniformity with the Gospel itself. And let us 
well observe that, whatever may be the name, whatever may be the form of 
the institutions, they have always for their object something more than the 
simple observance of the precepts ; the idea of perfection is always included, 
then, either in the active or the contemplative life. To keep the Divine command- 
ments is indispensable to all Christians who wish to possess eternal life ; the 
religious orders attempt a more difficult path ; they aim at perfection. This is 
the object of the men who, after having heard these words from the mouth of 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



223 



their Divine Master : "If you wish to be perfect, go sell all yon have, and give 
it to the poor/' have not departed sorrowful, like the young man in the Gospel, 
but have embraced with courage the enterprise of quitting all and following 
Jesus Christ. 

We have now inquired whether association is the best means to carry into 
execution so holy an object. It would be easy for me to show this by adducing 
various texts of Scripture, where the true spirit of the Christian religion, and 
the will of our Divine Master, are clearly shown on this point ; but the taste of 
our age, and the self-evidence even of the truths in question, warn us to avoid, 
as much as possible, all that savors of theological discussion. I will remove 
the question, then, from this level, to consider it in a light purely historical 
and philosophical ; that is to say, without accumulating citations and texts, I 
will prove that religious institutes are perfectly conformable to the spirit of the 
Christian religion ; and that consequently that spirit has been deplorably mis- 
taken by Protestants, when they have condemned or destroyed them. If phi- 
losophers, while they do not admit the truth of religion, still avow that it is 
useful and beautiful, I will prove to them that they cannot condemn those 
institutions which are the necessary result of it. In the cradle of Christianity, 
when men preserved, in all their energy and purity, the sparks from the 
tongues of the Holy Spirit; in those times, when the words and examples of its 
Divine Founder were still fresh, when the number of the faithful who had had 
the happiness of seeing and hearing Him was still very great in the Church, 
we see the Christians, under the direction of the Apostles themselves, unite, 
have all their property in common ; thus forming only one family, the Father 
of which was in heaven, and which had only one heart and one soul. 

I will not dispute as to the extent of this primitive proceeding ; I will abstain 
from analyzing the various circumstances which accompanied it, and from ex- 
amining how far it resembled the religious institutions of latter times ; it is 
enough to state its existence, and show therefrom what is the true spirit of 
religion with respect to the most proper means to realize evangelical perfection. 
I will only allude to the fact, that Cassian, in the description which he gives 
of the commencement of religious institutions, assigns as their cradle the pro- 
ceeding we have just mentioned, and which is reported in the Acts of the 
Apostles. According to the same author, this kind of life was never wholly 
interrupted ; so that there were always some fervent Christians who continued 
it; thus attaching, by a continued chain, the existence of the monks to the 
primitive associations of the apostolical times. After having described the 
kind of life of the first Christians, and traced the alterations of the times that 
followed, Cassian continues thus : " Those who preserved the apostolical fervor 
in this way, recalling primitive perfection, quitted towns, and the society of 
those who believed that they were allowed to live with less severity ; they began 
to choose secret and retired places, where they could follow in private the rules 
which they remembered to have been appointed by the Apostles for the whole 
body of the Church in general. Thus commenced the formation of the disci- 
pline of those who had quitted that contagion, as they lived separate from the 
rest of the faithful ; abstaining from marriage, and having no communication 
with the world, even with their own families. In the progress of time, the 
name of monks was given to them, in consideration of their singular and soli- 
tary life." (CollaL 18, cap. 5.) 

Times of persecution immediately followed, which, with some interruptions, 
that may be called moments of repose, lasted till the conversion of Constantine. 
There were, then, during this time, some Christians who attempted to continue 
the mode of life of the apostolical years. Cassian clearly indicates this in the 
passage which we have just read. He omits to say that this primitive life was 
necessarily modified, in its exterior form, by the calamities with which the 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Church was afflicted at that period. In all that time we ought not to look for 
Christians living in community j we shall find them confessing J esus Christ, 
with imperturbable calmness, on the rack, amid all torments, in the circus, 
where they were torn to pieces by wild beasts, on the scaffold, where they 
quietly gave up their heads to the axe of the executioner. But observe what 
happened even during the time of persecution ) the Christians, of whom the 
world was not worthy, pursued in the towns like wild beasts, wandered about 
in solitude, seeking refuge in the deserts. The solitudes of the East, the sand 
and rocks of Arabia, the most inaccessible places of the Thebaid, receive those 
troops of fugitives, who dwell in the abodes of wild beasts, in abandoned graves, 
in dried-up cisterns, in the deepest caverns, only asking for an asylum for medi- 
tation and prayer. And do you know the result of this ? These deserts, in 
which the Christians wandered, like a few grains of sand driven by the wind, 
became peopled, as it were by magic, with innumerable religious communities. 
There they meditated, prayed, and read the Gospel \ hardly had the fruitful 
seed touched the earth, when the precious plant arose in a moment. 

Admirable are the designs of Providence ! Christianity, persecuted in the 
towns, fertilizes and embellishes the deserts ; the precious grain requires for its 
development neither the moisture of the earth nor the breeze of a mild atmo- 
sphere ) when carried through the air on the wings of the storm, the seed loses 
nothing of its vitality; when thrown on a rock, it does not perish. The fury 
of the elements avails nothing against the work of Cod, who has made the 
north wind His courser : the rock ceases to be barren when He pleases to fer- 
tilize it. Did He not make pure water spring forth at the mysterious touch of 
His Prophet's rod ? 

When peace was given to the Church by the conqueror of Maxentius, the 
germs contained in the bosom of Christianity were able to develope themselves 
everywhere ; from that moment the Church was never without religious com- 
munities. With history in our hands, we may defy the enemies of religious 
institutions to point out any period, however short, when these institutions had 
entirely disappeared. Under some form or in some country, they have always 
perpetuated the existence which they had received in the early ages of Chris- 
tianity. The fact is certain and constant, and is found in every page of eccle- 
siastical history ) it plays an important part in all the great events in the annals 
of the Church. It is found in the west and in the east, in modern and in an- 
cient times, in the prosperity and in the adversity of the Church j when the 
pursuit of religious perfection was an honor in the eyes of the world, as well 
as when it was an object of persecution, raillery, and calumny. What clearer 
proof can there be that there is an intimate connection between religious insti- 
tutions and religion herself? What more is required to show us that they are 
her spontaneous fruit ? In the moral and in the physical order of things, the 
constant appearance of the one following the other, is regarded as a proof of the 
reciprocal dependence of two phenomena. If these phenomena have towards 
each other the relations of cause and effect — if we find in the essence of the one 
all the principles that are required in the production of the other, the 
first is called the cause and the other the effect. Wherever the religion of 
Jesus Christ is established, religious communities are found under some form or 
other ; they are, therefore, its spontaneous effect. I do not know what reply 
can be made to so conclusive an argument. 

By viewing the question in this way, the favor and protection which religious 
institutions always found with the Pontiff is naturally explained. It was his 
duty to act in conformity with the spirit which animates the Church, of which 
he is the chief ruler upon earth j it is certainly not the Pope who has made the 
regulation, that one of the means most apt to lead men to perfection is to unite 
themselves in associations under certain rules, in conformity with the instruc- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



225 



tions of their Divine Master. The Eternal Lord thus ruled in the secrets of 
His infinite wisdom, and the conduct of the Popes could not be contrary to the 
designs of the Most High. It has been said that interested views interposed ; 
it has been said that the policy of the Popes found in these institutions a power- 
ful means of sustaining and aggrandizing itself. But can you not see any thing 
but the sordid instruments of cunning policy in the societies of the primitive 
faithful, in the monasteries of the solitudes of the East, in that crowd of insti- 
tutions which have had for their object only the sanctification of their own mem- 
bers and the amelioration of some of the great evils of humanity ? A fact so 
general, so great, so beneficent, cannot be explained by views of interest and 
narrow designs ; its origin is higher and nobler ; and he who will not seek for 
it in heaven ought at least to seek for it in something greater than the projects 
of a man or the policy of a court ; he ought to seek for lofty ideas, sublime 
feelings, capable, if they do not mount to heaven, at least of embracing a large 
part of the earth ; nothing less is here required than one of those thoughts which 
preside over the destinies of the human race. 

Some persons may be inclined to imagine private designs on the part of the 
Popes, because they see their authority interfere in all the foundations of later 
ages, and their approbation constitute the validity of the rules of religious insti- 
tutions ; but the course pursued in this respect by ecclesiastical discipline shows 
us that the most active intervention of the Popes, far from emanating from private 
views, has been called for by a necessity of preventing an excessive multiplication 
of the religious orders in consequence of an indiscreet zeal. This vigilance in 
preventing abuses was the origin of this supreme intervention. In the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries the tendency to new foundations was so strong that the 
most serious inconveniences would have resulted from it, without a continual 
watchfulness on the part of the ecclesiastical authority. Thus we see the Sove- 
reign Pontiff Innocent III. ordain, in the Council of Lateran, that whoever 
wished to found a new religious house shall be bound to adopt one of the approved 
rules and institutions. 

But let us pursue our design. I can understand how those who deny the 
truth of the Christian religion, and turn into ridicule the counsels of the Gospel, 
bring themselves to deny all that is celestial and divine in the spirit of the reli- 
gious communities ; but the truth of religion once established, I cannot conceive 
how men who boast of following its laws can declare themselves the enemies of 
these institutions considered in themselves. How can he who admits the prin- 
ciple refuse the consequence ? How can he who loves the cause reject the effect? 
They must either affect a religion hypocritically, or they profess without compre- 
hending it. 

In default of any other proof of the anti-evangelical spirit which guided the 
leaders of the pretended Reformation, their hatred to an institution so evidently 
founded on the Grospel itself should suffice. Did not these enthusiasts for 
reading the Bible without note or comment — they who pretend to find all its 
passages so clear — did they not remark the plain and easy sense of that multi- 
tude of passages which recommend self-abnegation, the renunciation of all pos- 
sessions, and the privation of all pleasures ? These words are plain — they can- 
not be taken in any other signification — they do not require for their compre- 
hension a profound study of the sacred sciences, or that of languages ; and yet 
they have not been heard : we should rather say, they have not been listened to. 
The intellect has understood, but the passions have rejected them. 

As to those philosophers who have regarded religious institutions as vain and 
contemptible, if not dangerous, it is clear that they have meditated but little on 
the human mind, and on the deep feelings of our hearts, full as they are of 
mystery. As their hearts have felt nothing at the sight of those numbers of 
men and women assembled for the purpose of sanctifying themselves or others, 
29 



226 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



or of relieving wants, and consoling the unfortunate, it is but too clear that their 
souls have been dried up by the breath of skepticism. To renounce for ever all 
the pleasures of life ; to live in solitude, there to offer one's self, in austerity 
and penance, as a holocaust to the Most High : this, certainly is a matter of 
horror to those philosophers who have only viewed the world through their own 
prejudices. But humanity has other thoughts j it feels itself attracted by those 
objects which philosophers find so vain, so devoid of interest, so worthy of horror. 

Wonderful are the secrets of our hearts ! Although enervated by pleasure, 
and involved in the whirlwind of amusement and mirth, we cannot avoid being 
seized with deep emotion at the sight of austerity and recollection of soul. Soli- 
tude, and even sadness itself, exert an inexpressible influence over us. Whence 
comes that enthusiasm which moves a whole nation, excites and makes it follow, 
as if by enchantment, the steps of a man whose brow is marked by recollection, 
whose features display austerity of life, whose clothes and manners show freedom 
from all that is earthly, and forgetfulness of the world ? Now, it is a fact, 
proved by the history both of true and of false religions j so powerful a means of 
attracting respect and esteem has not remained unknown to imposture : licen- 
tiousness and corruption, desirous of making their fortunes in the world, have more 
than once felt the imperious necessity of disguising themselves under the mantle 
of austerity and purity. What at first sight might appear the most opposed to 
our feelings, the most repugnant to our tastes — this shade of sadness diffused 
over the recollection and solitude of the religious life — is precisely what enchants 
and attracts us the most. The religious life is solitary and pensive ; therefore 
it is beautiful, and its beauty is sublime. Nothing is more apt than this subli- 
mity to move our hearts deeply, and make indelible impressions on them. In 
reality, our soul has the character of an exile; it is affected by melancholy objects 
only ; it has not attained to that noisy joy which requires to borrow a tint of 
melancholy only for the sake of a happy contrast. In order to clothe beauty 
with its most seductive charms, it is necessary that a tear of anguish should 
flow from her eyes, that her forehead should assume an air of sadness, and her 
cheeks grow pale with a melancholy remembrance. In order that the life of a 
hero excite a lively interest in us, it is requisite that misfortune be his companion, 
lamentation his consolation — that disaster and ingratitude be the reward of his 
virtues. If you wish that a picture of nature or art should strongly attract our 
attention, take possession of and absorb the powers of our soul, it is necessary 
:that a, memorial of the nothingness of man, and an image of death, should be 
presented to our minds; our hearts should be appealed to by the feelings of a 
tranquil sadness ; we desire to see sombre tints on a monument in ruins — the 
cross reminding us of the abode of the dead, the massive walls covered with 
moss, and pointing out the ancient dwelling of some powerful man, who, after 
having lived on earth for a short time, has disappeared. 

J oy does not satisfy us, it does not fill our hearts ; it intoxicates and dissipates 
them for a few moments ; but man does not find there his happiness, because 
the joys of earth are frivolous, and frivolity cannot attach a traveller who, far 
from his country, walks painfully through the valley of tears. Thence it comes 
that, while sorrow and tears are accepted — we should rather say, are carefully 
sought for by art — whenever a deep impression is to be made upon the soul, 
joy and smiles are inexorably banished. Oratory, poetry, sculpture, painting, 
music, have all constantly followed the same rule ; or, rather, have always been 
governed by the same instinct. It certainly required a lofty spirit and a heart 
of fire to declare that the soul is naturally Christian. In these few words an 
illustrious thinker has known how to express all the relations which unite the 
faith, morality, and counsels of this divine religion, with all that is most 
intimate, delicate, and noble in our hearts. Do you know Christian pensiveness; 
.that grave and elevated feeling which is painted on the forehead of the Christian, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



227 



like a memorial of sorrow on that of an illustrious proscribed one ; this feeling 
which moderates the enjoyments of life by the image of the tomb, and lights up the 
depths of the grave with the rays of hope ; that pensiveness so natural and con- 
soling, so grave and noble, which causes diadems and sceptres to be trodden 
under foot like dust, and the greatness and splendor of the world to be despised 
as a passing illusion ? This melancholy, carried to its perfection, vivified and 
fertilized by grace, and subjected to a holy rule, is what presides over the foun- 
dation of religious institutions, and accompanies them as long as they preserve 
their primitive fervor, which they received from men who were guided by 
divine light, and animated by the Spirit of God. This holy melancholy, which 
carries with it freedom from all earthly things, is the feeling which the Church 
wishes to instil into and preserve in, the religious orders, when she surrounds 
their silent abodes with a shade of retirement and meditation. 

That amid the fury and the convulsions of parties, a mad and sacrilegious 
hand, secretly excited by malice, should plunge a fratricidal dagger into an inno- 
cent heart, or set fire to a peaceful dwelling, may be conceived ; for, unhappily, 
the history of man abounds in crimes and frenzies; but that the essence of 
religious institutions should be attacked, that their spirit should be considered 
narrow and imbecile, that they should be deprived of the noble titles which 
give honor to their origin, and the beauties which adorn their history, can be 
allowed neither by the intellect nor by the heart. A false philosophy, which 
dries up and withers all that it touches, has undertaken so mad a task. But, 
setting aside religion and reason, literature and the fine arts have rebelled 
against this attempt ; literature and the fine arts, which have need of old recol- 
lections, and which are indebted for their wonders to lofty thoughts, to grave 
and noble scenes, and deep and melancholy feelings; literature and the arts, 
which delight in transporting the mind of man into regions of light, in guiding 
the imagination through new and unknown paths, and in ruling the heart by 
mysterious charms. 

No ) a thousand times no ! As long as the religion of that Grod made man, 
who had not where to repose his head, and who sat down by a well on the way- 
side to rest, like an humble traveller, shall last ; of that God-man, whose ap- 
pearance was announced to the nations by a mysterious voice coming from the 
desert — by the voice of a man clothed in a goat-skin, whose reins were bound 
with a leathern girdle, and who lived on nothing but locusts and wild honey : 
as long as this divine religion shall last, nothing will be more holy or more 
worthy of our respect than those institutions, the true and original object of 
which is to realize what Heaven intended to teach man by such eloquent and 
sublime lessons. Times, vicissitudes, and revolutions, succeed each other ; the 
institution will change its form, will undergo alterations, will be affected more or 
less by the weakness of men, by the corrosive action of time, and the destruc- 
tive power of events ; but it will live— it will never perish. If one society 
rejects it, it will seek an asylum in another; driven from towns, it will take 
refuge in forests ; if there pursued, it will flee to the horrors of the desert. 
There will always be, in some privileged hearts, an echo for the voice of that 
sublime religion, which, holding in her hand a standard of sorrow and love — 
the sacred standard of the sufferings and death of the Son of God — the Cross, 
will proclaim to men : " Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation ; 
if you assemble to pray, the Lord will be in the midst of you ; all flesh is but 
grass j life is a dream ; above your heads is an ocean of light and happiness ; 
under your feet an abyss ; your life on earth is a pilgrimage, an exile. " Then 
she marks his forehead with the mysterious ashes, telling him, " Thou art dust, 
and unto dust thou shalt return." 

We shall perhaps be asked why the faithful cannot practise evangelical per- 
fection while living in the bosom of their families, without assembling in com- 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



munities ? We shall reply, that we have no intention of denying the possibility 
#f that practice, even in the midst of the world ; and we willingly acknowledge 
that a great number of Christians have done so at all times, and do so now ; 
but this does not prove that the surest and easiest means is not that of the life 
in community with others who have the same object in view, and in retirement 
from all the things of this world. Laying aside for a moment all consideration 
of religion, are you not aware of the ascendency which the spirit of repeated 
examples exerts on those with whom we live ? Do you not know how easily 
our spirit fails when we find ourselves alone in a difficult enterprise ? Do you 
not know that, in the greatest misfortunes, it is a consolation to behold others 
participate in our sorrows ? On this point, as well as on all others, religion 
accords with sound philosophy, and both unite in explaining to us the profound 
meaning contained in those words of Scripture : u Vse soli ! Wo to him who is 
alone !" 

Before concluding this chapter, I wish to say a few words on the vows which 
commonly accompany religious institutes. Perhaps they are one of the princi- 
pal causes of the violent antipathy of Protestantism against these institutions. 
Vows render things fixed and stable ; and the fundamental principle of Pro- 
testantism does not admit of fixity or stability. Essentially separating and 
anarchical, this principle rejects unity and destroys the hierarchy ; dissolving 
in its nature, it allows the mind neither to remain in a permanent faith nor to 
be subject to rule. For if virtue itself is only a vague entity, which has no 
fixed foundation — a being which is fed on illusions, and which cannot endure 
the application of any certain and constant rule, this holy necessity of doing 
well, of constantly walking in the path of perfection, must be incomprehen- 
sible to it, and in the highest degree repugnant ; this necessity must appear to 
it inconsistent with liberty ; as if man, by binding himself by a vow, lost his 
free will ; as if the sanction which a promise given to God imparts to a design, 
at all diminished the merit of him who has the firmness necessary to accomplish 
what he had the courage to promise. 

Those who, to condemn this necessity which man imposes on himself, invoke 
the rights of liberty against it, seem to forget that this effort of man to make 
himself the slave of good, and secure his own future, besides the sublime dis- 
interestedness which it supposes, is the vastest exercise which man can make of 
his liberty. By one act alone, he disposes of his whole life, and by fulfilling 
the duties resulting from that act, he continually fulfils his own will. But we 
shall be told that man is so inconstant : this is the reason why, in order to pre- 
vent the effects of this inconstancy, he finds himself penetrating into the vicis- 
situdes of the future, renders himself superior to them, and governs them in 
advance. But, it will be said, in that case, good is done from necessity : this 
is true ; but do you not know that the necessity of doing good is a happy one, 
and in some measure assimilates man with God ? Do you not know that Infi- 
nite Goodness is incapable of doing evil, and Infinite Holiness can do nothing 
that is not holy ? Theologians explain why a created being is capable of sin- 
ning by pointing out this profound reason. "It is," they say, "because the 
creature is made out of nothing." When man forces himself, as far as he can, 
to do well, when he thus fetters his will, he ennobles it, he renders himself more 
like to God, he assimilates himself to the state of the blessed, who have no 
longer the melancholy liberty of doing evil, and who are under the happy 
necessity of loving God. 

The name of liberty, from the time when Protestants and false philosophers 
took possession of it, seems condemned to be ill understood in all its applica- 
tions. In the religious, moral, social, and political order, it is enveloped in such 
obscurity, that we can perceive the many efforts which have been made to darken 
and misrepresent it. Cicero gives an admirable definition of liberty when he 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



229 



says, that it consists in being the slave of law. In the same way it may be said, 
that the liberty of the intellect consists in being the slave of truth ; and the 
liberty of the will in being the slave of virtue ; if you change this, you destroy 
liberty. If you take away the law, you admit force ; if you take away the 
truth, you admit error ; if you take away virtue, you admit vice. If you ven- 
ture to exempt the world from the external law, from that law which embraces 
man and society, which extends to all orders, which is the divine wisdom ap- 
plied to reasonable creatures ; if you venture to seek for an imaginary liberty 
out of that immense circle, you destroy all; there remains in society nothing 
but the empire of brute force, and in man that of the passions ; with tyranny, 
and consequently slavery. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN HISTORY. THE FIRST SOLITARIES. 

I have just examined religious institutions in a general point of view, by 
considering them in their relations with religion and the human mind. I am 
now going to take a glance at the principal points of their history. This exami- 
nation, I think, will show us an important truth : viz. that the appearance of 
these institutions under different forms has been the expression and the fulfil- 
ment of great moral necessities, and a powerful means, in the hands of Provi- 
dence, of promoting not only the spiritual good of the Church, but also the 
salvation and regeneration of society. It will be understood that it is not pos- 
sible for me to enter into details, or pass in review the numerous religious 
institutions which have existed ; besides, this is not necessary for my object. I 
shall limit myself, therefore, to running over the principal phases of religious 
institutes, and making a few remarks on each of them; I shall act like the 
traveller who, being unable to make a stay in the country through which he 
passes, looks at it for a short time from the highest points. I will begin with 
the solitaries of the East. 

The Colossus of the Roman Empire threatened an approaching and stunning 
fall : the spirit of life was rapidly becoming extinguished, and there was no 
longer any hope of a breath to reanimate it. The blood circulated slowly in its 
veins; the evil was incurable: the symptoms of corruption everywhere mani- 
fested themselves, and this agony was exactly coincident with the critical and 
formidable hour when it was necessary to collect all its forces to resist the 
violent shock which was about to destroy it. The barbarians appeared on the 
frontiers of the empire, like the carnivorous animals attracted by the exhala- 
tions of a dead body; and at this crisis society found itself on the eve of a 
fearful catastrophe. All the world was about to undergo an alarming change ; 
the next day was not likely to resemble the last ; the tree was about to be torn 
up ; but its roots were too deep for it to be extirpated without changing the 
whole face of the soil where it was planted. The greatest refinement had to 
contend with barbarian ferocity, — the effeminate luxury of southern nations 
with the energy of the robust sons of the forest; the result of the struggle 
could not be doubtful. Laws, customs, manners, monuments, arts and sciences, 
—all the civilization and refinement acquired during the course of many ages 
was all in peril, all foreboded approaching ruin, all understood that Cod had 
appointed an end to the power, and even the existence of the rulers of the 
globe. The barbarians were only the instrument of Providence; the hand which 
had given a mortal blow to the mistress of the world, the queen of nations, was 
that formidable hand which touches mountains with fire, and reduces them to 
ashes, which touches the rocks and melts them like metal; it was the hand of 



230 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Him who sends forth His fiery breath upon the nations, and burns them up 
like straw. 

The world must be the prey of chaos for a short time ; but was not light 
again to come upon it ? Was mankind to be melted, like gold in the furnace, 
in order to come out more brilliant and more pure ? Were ideas respecting G-od 
and man to be corrected ? Were more delicate and exalted notions of morality 
to be diffused ? Was it reserved for the heart of man to receive more grave 
and sublime inspirations, to emerge from its corrupt state, and live in an atmo- 
sphere higher and more worthy of an immortal being ? Yes ! Providence thus 
decreed, and His infinite wisdom has brought about this end by ways which 
man could not understand. 

Christianity was already spread over the face of the world ; her holy doc- 
trines, rendered fruitful by grace, prepared the complete regeneration of the 
world ; but it was necessary that mankind should again receive a new impulse 
from her divine hands, that the mind of man should be moved by a new shock, 
that it might take its proper flight, and raise itself at once to the exalted posi- 
tion which was intended for it, and from which it was never to descend. His- 
tory tells us of the obstacles which opposed the establishment and development 
of Christianity. According to the warlike expression of the Prophet, God was 
compelled to assume His sword and buckler j by the strength of wonderful pro- 
digies, He broke the resistance of the passions, destroyed every knowledge 
which raised itself against the knowledge of God, scattered all the powers 
which rebelled against Him, and extinguished the pride and obstinacy of hell. 
When, after three centuries of persecution, victory declared itself throughout 
the world in favor of the true religion ; when the temples of the false gods 
were deserted, and those idols which were not yet overthrown trembled on their 
pedestals; when the sign of Calvary was inscribed on the Labanim of the 
Caesars, and the legions of the empire bowed religiously before the Cross, then 
had the moment arrived for Christianity to realize, in a permanent manner, in 
those sublime institutions conceived and established by herself alone, the lofty 
counsels given three centuries before in Palestine. The wisdom of philosophers 
had been vain j the time was come to realize the wisdom of the Carpenter of 
Nazareth, of Him who, without having consulted human learning, had pro- 
claimed and taught truths unknown to the most privileged of mortals. 

The virtues of the Christians had already emerged from the obscurity of the 
catacombs j they were to be resplendent in the light of heaven and amid peace, 
as they had formerly shone in the depths of dungeons and amid the flames. 
Christianity had obtained possession of the sceptre of command, as of the 
domestic hearth ; her disciples, who now were multitudinous, no longer lived in 
a community of goods ; it is clear that entire continence, and complete freedom 
from all earthly things, could no longer be the mode of life of the regenerated 
families. The world was to continue ; the duration of the human race was not 
to cease at this point of its career; therefore, all Christians were not to observe 
the lofty counsels which convert the life of man on earth into the angelic. A 
great number of them were to belong to those who, in order to obtain eternal 
life, were satisfied with keeping the precepts, without aspiring to the sublime 
perfection which results from the renouncement of all that is earthly, and the 
complete abnegation of self. Yet the Founder of the Christian religion was 
unwilling that the counsels which He had given to men should be for a moment 
without some disciples amid the coldness and dissipation of the world. He had 
not given them in vain ; and, besides, the practice of them, although confined 
to a limited number of the faithful, exerted on all sides a beneficent influence 
which facilitated and secured the observance of the precepts. The force of 
example exerts so powerful an ascendency over the human heart, that it is often 
suflicient of itself to triumph over the strongest and most obstinate resistance ; 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



231 



there is something in our hearts which inclines them to sympathize with all 
that approaches them, whether good or evil ; and there seems to be a secret 
stimulus urging us to follow others, whatever direction they may take. There- 
fore it is that there are so many advantages in the establishment of religious 
institutions, in which the virtues and austerity of life are given as an example to 
the generality of men, and make an eloquent reproach to the errors of passion. 

Providence desired to attain this great end by singular and extraordinary 
means; the Spirit of God breathed on the earth, and immediately the men and 
power to commence this great work appeared. The frightful deserts of Thebaid, 
the burning solitudes of Arabia, Palestine, and Syria, show us men rudely clad, 
with a mantle of goat-skin on their shoulders, and a plain cowl on their heads : 
behold all the luxury with which they confound the vanity and pride of world- 
lings ! Their bodies, exposed to the rays of the most burning sun and the 
most severe cold, besides being attenuated by long fasts, resemble walking 
spectres who have arisen from the dust of their sepulchres. The herbs of the 
earth are their only food, water their only drink; the labor of their hands pro- 
cures for them the scanty resources they require. Under the direction of a 
venerable old man, whose claims to rule are a long life passed in the desert, and 
hairs grown white amid privations and austerities, they constantly keep the 
profoundest silence; their lips are opened only to pronounce the words of 
prayer; their voice is only heard to intone a hymn of praise to God. For them 
the world has ceased to exist; the relations of friendship, the sweet ties of 
family and relationship, are all broken by a spirit of perfection, carried to an 
extent which surpasses all earthly considerations. The cares of property do 
not disturb them ; before retiring to the desert, they have abandoned all to him 
who was to succeed them ; or they have sold all they had, and given the price 
to the poor. The Holy Scriptures are the nourishment of their minds; they 
learn by heart the words of that divine book ; they meditate on them unceas- 
ingly, beseeching the Lord to grant that they may understand them aright. In 
their retired meetings, nothing is heard but the voice of some venerable ceno- 
bite, explaining with naive simplicity and touching unction the sense of the 
sacred text ; but always in such a way as to draw profit for the purification of 
souls. 

The number of these solitaries was so great that we could not credit it, if it 
were not vouched for by eye-witnesses worthy of the highest respect. As to 
their sanctity, spirit of penance, and purity of life, we cannot doubt them after 
the testimonies of Rufinus, Palladius, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, St. Au- 
gustine, and all the other illustrious men who distinguished themselves at that 
time. The fact is singular, extraordinary, prodigious; but no one can question 
its historical truth ; it is attested by all who came to the desert from all parts to 
seek for light in their doubts, cures for their evils, and pardon for their sins. I 
could quote a thousand authorities to prove what I have said ; but I will content 
myself with one, which shall suflice for all — that of St. Augustine. Hear how 
this holy doctor describes the life of these extraordinary men : u These fathers, 
not only very holy in their manners, but very learned in the Christian doctrine, 
excellent men in all respects, do not govern with pride those whom they justly 
call their sons, on account of the high authority of those who command, and the 
ready will of those who obey. At the decline of day, one of them, still fasting, 
quits his habitation, and all assemble to hear their master. Each of these 
fathers has at least three thousand under his direction; for the number is some- 
times much greater. They listen with incredible attention, in profound silence, 
manifesting by their groans, or tears, or by their modest and tranquil joy, the 
various feelings which the discourse excites in their souls." (St. Augustin. lib. 1, 
De Moribus Ecclesias, cap. 31.) 

But it will be said, Of what use were these men, except for their own sancti* 



232 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



fication ? what good did they do to society ? what influence did they exert on 
ideas ? what change did they make in manners ? If we admit that this plant 
of the desert was beautiful and fragrant, yet what did it avail ? it remained 
sterile. It certainly would be an error to think that so many thousands of soli- 
taries did not exercise great influence. In the first place, and to speak only of 
what relates to ideas, we must observe, that the monasteries of the East arose 
within reach, and under the eyes of, the schools of philosophy. Egypt was the 
country where the cenobetic life flourished the most. Now every one is aware 
of the high renown which the schools of Alexandria enjoyed a short time before. 
On all sides of the Mediterranean — on that border of land which, beginning in 
Libya, terminates in the Black Sea — men's minds were at that time in a state 
of extraordinary motion. Christianity and Judaism, the doctrines of the East 
and those of the "West — all was collected and accumulated in this part of the 
world; the remains of the ancient schools of Greece were formed of the trea- 
sures, which the course of ages and the passage of the most famous nations of 
the earth had brought to those countries. New and gigantic events were come 
to throw floods of light upon the character and the value of ideas ; minds had 
felt shocks which did not allow them any longer to be contented with the quiet 
lessons contained in the dialogues of the ancient masters. From these famous 
countries came the most eminent men of the early ages of Christianity ; and we 
know from their works the extent and elevation of mind which man had attained 
at that time. "Was it possible that a phenomenon so extraordinary — a girdle of 
monasteries and hermitages, embracing this zone of the world, and showing 
themselves in the face of the schools of philosophy — should not exert great influ- 
ence on men's minds? The ideas of the solitaries passed incessantly from the 
desert into the towns ; since, in spite of all the care which they took to avoid 
the contact of the world, the world sought and approached them, and continually 
came to receive their inspirations. 

When we see the nations crowd to the solitaries the most eminent for their 
sanctity, to implore from their wisdom a remedy for suffering and a consolation 
in misfortunes; when we see these venerable men impart, together with the 
unction of the Gospel, the sublime lessons which they had learned during long 
years of meditation and prayer in the silence of solitude, it is impossible not to 
understand how much these communications must have contributed to correct 
and elevate ideas relating to religion and morality, and to amend and purify 
morals. Let us not forget that the human mind was, as it were, materialized by 
the corruption and grossness of the pagan religion. The worship of nature, of 
sensible forms, was so deeply rooted that, in order to raise minds to the concep- 
tion of superior things, a strong and extraordinary reaction was required ; it 
was necessary in some measure to annihilate matter in order to present to man 
only the mind. The life of the solitaries was the best adapted to produce this 
effect. In reading the history of these times, we seem to find ourselves trans- 
ported out of this world ; the flesh has disappeared, and there remains nothing 
but the spirit; and the force which has been employed in order to subdue the 
flesh is such — they have insisted so much on the vanity of earthly things — that 
reality itself is changed into illusion, and the physical world vanishes to make 
way for the moral and intellectual; all the ties of earth have been broken; man 
puts himself in intimate communication with Heaven. Miracles multiply exceed- 
ingly in these lives; apparitions continually appear; the abodes of the solitaries 
are arenas where earthly means are nothing ; good angels struggle against de- 
mons, heaven against hell, God against Satan : the earth is there only to serve 
as a field of battle ; the body exists no longer except to be consumed as a holo- 
caust on the altars of virtue, in the presence of the demon who struggles 
furiously to render it the slave of vice. 

What has become of the idolatrous worship which Greece paid to sensible 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



233 



forms, that adoration which it offered to nature by deifying all that was deli- 
cious and beautiful, all that could interest the senses and the heart ? What a 
profound change ! the same senses are subjected to the most severe privations; 
they are most strictly circumcised in heart; and man, who then scarcely at- 
tempted to raise his mind above the earth, now keeps it constantly fixed on 
Heaven. It is impossible to form an idea of what we are attempting to describe, 
without having read the lives of these solitaries ; to understand all the effect of 
their great prodigies, it is necessary to have spent many hours over these pages, 
where, so to speak, nothing is found which follows the natural course of things. 
It is not enough to imagine pure lives, austerities, visions, and miracles ; it is 
necessary to see all this collected together, and carried to the most wonderful 
extent in the path of perfection. 

If you refuse to acknowledge the action of grace in facts so surprising ; if you 
will not see any supernatural effect in this religious movement ; I say more, if 
you go so far as to suppose that the mortification of the flesh and the elevation 
of the soul are carried to blamable exaggeration, still you cannot help allowing 
that such a reaction was very likely to spiritualize ideas, to awaken the moral 
and intellectual forces in man, and to concentrate all within himself, by giving 
him the sentiment of that interior, intimate, and moral life, with which, until 
then, he had not been occupied. The forehead which, till then, had been bent 
towards the earth, was raised towards the Divinity; something nobler than 
material enjoyments was offered to the mind, and the brutal excesses authorized 
by the example of the false divinities of paganism, at length appeared an offence 
against the high dignity of human nature. 

In the moral order, the effect must have been immense. Man, until then, 
had not even imagined that it was possible to resist the impetuosity of his pas- 
sions. There were found, it is true, in the cold morality of a few philosophers, 
certain maxims intended to restrain the dangerous passions; but this morality 
was only in the books, the world did not regard it as practicable, and if some 
men attempted to realize it, they did so in such a manner that, far from giving 
it credit, they rendered it contemptible. What did it avail to abandon riches 
and profess freedom from all earthly things, as some philosophers did, if at the 
same time they appeared so vain, so full of themselves, that it was evident that 
they only sacrificed on the altar of pride ? It was to overturn all the idols in 
order to place themselves on the altar, and reign there without rival gods ; this 
was not to direct the passions, to subject them to reason, but to create a mon- 
ster passion surpassing and devouring all. Humility, the foundation-stone 
whereon the solitaries raised the edifice of their virtue, placed them immediately 
in a position infinitely superior to that of the ancient philosophers who were dis- 
tinguished for a life more or less severe. In fine, men were taught to avoid vice 
and practise virtue, not for the futile pleasure of being regarded and admired, 
but for superior motives founded on the relations of man with God, and the 
destinies of eternity. From that moment man knew that it was not impossible 
for him to triumph over evil, in the obstinate struggle which he felt continually 
going on within himself. At the sight of so many thousands of persons of 
both sexes who followed a rule of life so pure and austere, mankind took fresh 
courage, and were convinced that the paths of virtue were not impracticable for 
them. 

The generous confidence with which man was inspired by the sight of such 
sublime examples, lost nothing of its strength in presence of the Christian 
dogma, which does not allow actions meritorious of eternal life to be attributed 
to man himself, and teaches him the necessity of divine aid, if he wishes to 
escape the paths of perdition. This dogma, which, on the other hand, accords 
so well with the daily lessons of experience as to human frailty, far from destroy- 
ing the strength of the mind or diminishing its courage, on the contrary, ani- 
30 u2 



234 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



mates it more and more to persevere in spite of all obstacles. When man thinks 
himself alone, when he does not feel himself supported by the powerful hand 
of Providence, he walks with the tottering steps of infancy; he wants confi- 
dence in himself, in his own strength; the object he has in view seems too 
distant, the enterprise too arduous, and he is discouraged. The dogma of grace, 
as it is explained by the Catholic Church, is not that fatalist doctrine, the mo- 
ther of despair, which has hardened the heart among Protestants, as Grotius 
laments. It is a doctrine which, leaving man all his free will, teaches him the 
necessity of superior aid ; but that aid will be abundantly furnished him by the 
infinite goodness of God, who has shed His blood for him in torments and igno- 
miny, and has breathed out for him His last sigh on Mount Calvary. 

It seems as if Providence had been pleased to choose a climate where man- 
kind could make a trial of their strength vivified and sustained by grace. It 
was under a sky apparently the most fatal for the corruption of the soul, in 
countries where the relaxation of the body naturally leads to relaxation of mind, 
and where even the air that they breathed inclined to pleasure, — it was there 
that the greatest energy of mind was displayed, that the greatest austerities 
were practised, and the pleasures of the senses were proscribed and banished 
with the greatest severity. The solitaries fixed their abodes in deserts within 
the influence of the balmy breezes of the neighboring lands ; from their moun- 
tains and sandy hills their eyes could distinguish the peaceful and smiling coun- 
tries which invited to pleasure and enjoyment; like the Christian virgin who 
abandoned her obscure cave to go and place herself in the hollow of a rock, 
whence she saw the palace of her fathers overflowing with riches, pleasures, 
and delights, while she herself lamented like a solitary dove in the holes of the 
rock. From that time all climates were good for virtue ; austerity of morals 
did not at all depend on the proximity of the equatorial line ; the morality of 
man, like man himself, could live in all climates. When the most perfect con- 
tinence was practised in so wonderful a manner under the sky which we have 
described, the monogamy of Christianity could well be established and pre- 
served. When, in the secrets of the Eternal, the time had arrived for calling 
a people to the light of truth, it mattered not whether they lived amid the 
snows of Scandinavia, or on the burning plains of India. The spirit of the 
divine laws was not to be confined within the narrow circle which the Esprit 
des Loix of Montesquieu has attempted to assign it. 



CHAPTER XL. 

ON RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THE EAST. 

The influence exercised by the lives of the solitaries of the East over reli- 
gion and morality is beyond a doubt ; in truth it is not easy to appreciate it in 
all its extent and in all its effects ; but it is not the less true and real on that 
account. It has not marked the doctrines of humanity like those thundering 
events the effects of which are often inadequate to their promises ; but it is like 
a beneficial rain which, diffusing itself gently over the thirsty earth, fertilizes 
the meadows and the fields. If it were possible for man to comprehend and 
distinguish the vast assemblage of causes which have contributed to raise his 
mind, to give him a lively consciousness of his immortality, and to render a 
return to his ancient degradation almost impossible, perhaps it would be found 
that the wonderful phenomenon of the Eastern solitaries had a considerable 
share in that immense change. Let us not forget that from thence did the great 
men of the East receive their inspiration ; St. J erome lived in a cave at Beth- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



235 



lehem, and the conversion of St. Augustine was accompanied by a holy emula- 
tion excited in his mind by reading the life of St. Anthony the Abbot. 

The monasteries which were founded in the East and West in imitation of 
these early establishments of the solitaries, were a continuation of them, although 
with many differences, in consequence of times and circumstances. Thence came 
the Basils, the Gregories, the Chrysostoms, and so many distinguished men, the 
glory of the Church. If a miserable spirit of dispute, ambition, and pride, 
sowing the seeds of discord, had not prepared the rupture which was to deprive 
the East of the vivifying influence of the Roman See, perhaps the ancient mo- 
nasteries of the East would have served, like those of the West, to prepare a 
social regeneration, by forming one people out of the conquerors and the con- 
quered. 

It is evident that the want of unity was one of the causes of the weakness 
of the East J I will not deny that their position was very different from ours ; 
the enemy opposed to them did not at all resemble the barbarians of the North; 
but I am not sure that it was easier to subdue the latter than it was to rule the 
nations by whom the East was conquered. In the East, the victory remained 
with the aggressors, as with us ; but a conquered nation is not dead ; its defeat 
does not take from it all the great advantages which are able, by giving it a 
moral ascendency over the conquerors, to prepare, in silence, their transforma- 
tion, if not their expulsion. The northern barbarians conquered the South of 
Europe ; but the South, in its turn, triumphed over them by the Christian reli- 
gion ; the barbarians were not driven out, but they were transformed. Spain 
was conquered by the Arabs, and the Arabs could not be transformed ; but they 
were driven out in the end. If the East had preserved unity, if Constantino- 
ple and the other episcopal sees had remained subject to Rome like those of the 
West ; in a word, if all the East had been contented to be a member of a great 
body, instead of having the ambitious pretensions of being a great body itself, 
I consider it certain that, after the conquest of the Saracens, a struggle, at once 
intellectual, moral, and physical, would have been engaged in; a profound 
change would have been worked in the conquered nation, or the struggle 
would have ended by the conquering barbarians being driven back to their 
deserts. 

It will be said that the transformation of the Arabs was the work of ages. 
But was not that of the barbarians of the North so likewise ? Was this great 
work finished by their conversion to Christianity ? A considerable part of them 
were Arians; and besides, they understood the Christian ideas so ill, they 
found the practice of Gospel morality so difficult, that for a long time it was 
almost as difficult to treat with them as with nations of a different religion. On 
the other hand, let us not forget that the irruption of the barbarians was not a 
solitary event ; an event which, when once finished, did not recur ; it was con- 
tinued for ages. But the force of the religious principle in the West was such, 
that all the invading nations were compelled to retire, or were forced to bend 
to the ideas and manners of the countries they had recently acquired. The 
defeat of the hordes of Attila, the victories of Charlemagne over the Saxons 
and the other nations beyond the Rhine, the successive conversion of the various 
idolatrous nations of the North by means of the missionaries sent from Rome, 
— in fine, the vicissitudes and the final result of the invasions of the Normans, 
and the ultimate triumph of the Christians of Spain over the Moors after a war 
of eight centuries, are so many decisive proofs of what I have just laid down — 
viz. that the West, vivified and fortified by Catholic unity, had had the secret 
of assimilating and appropriating to itself all that it was not able to reject, and 
the force to reject all that it could not make its own. 

This is what was wanting in the East : the enterprise was not more difficult 
there than in the West. If the West alone was able to liberate the Holy Se- 



236 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



pulchre, the West and East together would never have lost it ; or, at least, after 
having freed it, they would have kept it for ever. The same cause prevented 
the monasteries of the East from attaining to the same vitality and energy 
which distinguished those of the West ; therefore, they have always been seen 
to grow weak with time, without producing any thing great, and capable of pre- 
venting social dissolution, of silently preparing and slowly elaborating regene- 
ration for posterity, after the calamities with which it pleased Providence to 
afflict ancient times. He who has seen in history the brilliant commencement 
of the Eastern monasteries, cannot behold without pain the decline of their 
strength and splendor in the course of ages, after the ravages caused by inva- 
sion, wars, and finally, the deadly influence of the schism of Constantinople ; 
the ancient abodes of so many men illustrious for science and sanctity gradually 
disappeared from the page of history like expiring lamps, or the dying fires of 
an abandoned camp. 

Immense injury was done to all the branches of human knowledge by this 
decline, which, after having rendered the East barren, ended by destroying it. 
If we pay attention, we shall see that, amid the great shocks and revolutions 
which disturbed Europe, Africa, and Asia, the natural refuge for the remains 
of ancient knowledge, was not the West, but the East. It was not in our mo- 
nasteries that the books, and other intellectual riches, of which quieter and 
happier generations were one day to enjoy the benefit, should naturally have 
been preserved ; this, it would seem, belonged to the monasteries of the eastern 
countries; those lands, where the most different civilizations were brought 
together and commingled as on neutral ground; those regions, where the 
human mind had displayed the greatest activity, and taken the highest flights ; 
where the most abundant treasures of tradition and sciences, and the beauties 
of art were accumulated ; in a word, it was in this vast mart of all the riches 
of the civilization and refinement of all nations, — it was in this sanctuary and 
museum of antiquity, that the intellectual patrimony of future generations 
ought to have been preserved. 

Let it not, however, be supposed that the monasteries of the East were of no 
service to the human mind; the science and literature of Europe are still mind- 
ful of the impulse which was communicated to them, by the arrival of the pre- 
cious materials thrown upon the coasts of Italy, after the taking of Constanti- 
nople : but even these riches, brought to Europe by a few men, driven upon 
our shores by a tempest, came to us, like the remains of a shipwrecked crew, 
who, after having with difficulty saved their lives from the fury of the waves, 
have only preserved in their benumbed hands some gold and a few precious 
stones. 

For this reason, precisely, do we lament, because from the example we have 
adduced, we are enabled the better to understand the immense riches of the 
vessel which was lost ; this makes us grieve the more bitterly that the early 
times of the illustrious cenobites of the East have not been brought down to 
our day by a continued chain. When we see their works overflow with sacred 
and profane learning, when their labors show us proofs of indefatigable activity, 
we think with sorrow of the inestimable treasures which their libraries must 
have contained. 

Yet, in spite of the justness of the melancholy reflections we have here made, 
it must be allowed that the influence of these monasteries never ceased to be 
extremely useful to the preservation of knowledge. The Arabs, in the times 
of their success, showed themselves to be intelligent and cultivated ; and Eu- 
rope, in many respects, is indebted to them for much advancement. Bagdad 
and Grenada, during the middle ages, are two brilliant centres of intellectual 
movement and art, which serve not a little to diminish the sombre effect of the 
barbarities of Islamism : they are two tranquil and pleasing features in a fright- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



237 



ful picture. If it were possible to follow the history of intellectual develop- 
ment among the Arabs, through the transformations and catastrophes of the 
East, perhaps we should find in the sciences of the nations which they con- 
quered or destroyed the origin of much of their progress. It is certain that 
their own civilization did not contain any ytal principle favorable to the 
development of the mind ; we have a proof of this in their religious and social 
organization, and in the small results which they obtained, after having been 
for so many centuries peacefully established in the conquered countries. Their 
whole system, with respect to letters and intellectual cultivation, is founded on 
that stupid maxim, uttered by one of their chiefs, when he condemned an im- 
mense library to the flames : " If these books are contrary to the Alcoran, they 
should be burnt as pernicious ; if they are not contrary to it, they should be 
burnt as useless." 

We read in Palladius, that the monks of Egypt did not content themselves 
with working with rude and simple objects, but that they devoted themselves 
to labors of all kinds. These thousands of men, who, belonging to all classes 
and to all countries, embraced the solitary life, must have brought to the desert 
a large treasure of knowledge. We know how far the human mind can go 
when left to itself, and applied to a fixed occupation ) there is always some 
reason for thinking that a great part of the valuable ideas on the secrets of 
nature, the utility and properties of certain ingredients, the principles of some 
of the arts and sciences, knowledge which formed the rich patrimony of the 
Arabs at the time when they appeared in Europe, were nothing but the remains 
of ancient learning, gathered by them in countries which had formerly been 
inundated by men from all parts. We must remember that at the time of the 
first invasions of the northern barbarians, when Spain, the south of France, 
Italy, the north of Africa, and all the islands adjacent to these countries, were 
ravaged by these terrible men, the East became a refuge, an asylum, for all 
those who could undertake the voyage. Thus the treasures of Western science 
accumulated every day in these countries ; this emigration from all the Western 
regions may have contributed, in an extraordinary manner, to convey to the East 
the remains of ancient knowledge, which afterwards came to us transformed and 
disfigured by the hands of the Arabs. , 

Deeply convinced of the nothingness of the world by so long a succession of 
heavy misfortunes, these unfortunate men felt the religious sentiment strength- 
ened in their hearts ; the fugitives assembled in the East listened with lively 
emotion to the energetic words of the solitary of the cave of Bethlehem. A 
great many of them retired into the monasteries, where they found relief for 
their wants, and consolation for their souls ; thus did the Eastern monasteries 
gain a great addition of valuable knowledge and information of all sorts. 

If European civilization one day become complete mistress of the countries 
which now groan under the Mussulman yoke, perhaps it will be given to the 
history of science to add a noble page to its labors, when, through the obscu- 
rities of the times, and by means of manuscripts discovered by curiosity or 
chance, she shall have found the thread which shall lead to a knowledge of the 
connection of Arabian science with that of antiquity. The succession of trans- 
formations will then be displayed, and we shall understand how the science of 
the sons of Omar has appeared to have a different origin in our eyes. The 
archives of Spain contain, in documents relating to the dominion of the Sara- 
cens, riches, the examination of which may be said not yet to be commenced ; 
perhaps they will throw some light on this point. There is no doubt that they 
afford matter for careful investigation, extremely curious for appreciating these 
two very different civilizations, the Mohammedan and the Christian. 



238 



CHAPTER XLI. 

OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF THE WEST. 

Let us now examine religious institutions, such as they appear in the "West, 
but laying aside those which, although established in various parts of the 
West, were only a sort of ramification of the Eastern monasteries. We observe 
that the religious establishments among us added to the Gospel spirit, the prin- 
ciple of their foundation, a new character, that of conservative, restorative, and 
regenerative associations. The monks of the West were not content with sanc- 
tifying themselves • from the first they influenced society. The light and life 
which their holy abodes contained, labored to enlighten and fertilize the chaos 
of the world. I do not know in history a nobler or more consoling spectacle 
than that which is presented to us by the foundation, existence, and develop- 
ment of the religious institutions of Europe. Society had need of strong efforts 
to preserve its life in the terrible crisis through which it had to pass. The secret 
of strength is in the union of individual forces, in association ; and it is remark- 
able that this secret has been taught to European society as if by a revelation 
from heaven. Every thing shakes, falls to pieces, and perishes. Religion, 
morality, public authority, laws, manners, sciences, and arts — every thing has 
sustained immense losses, every thing goes to ruin ; and judging of the future 
fate of the world according to human probabilities, the evils are so great and 
numerous that a remedy appears impossible. 

The observer who, fixing his eyes upon those desolate times, finds there St. 
Bennet giving life to and animating the religious institutions, organizing them, 
giving them his wise rule and stability, imagines that he sees an angel of light 
issuing from the bosom of darkness. Nothing can be imagined better calcu- 
lated to restore to dissolved society a principle of life capable of reorganizing 
it, than the extraordinary and sublime inspiration which guided this man. Who 
does not know what at that time was the condition of Italy — I should rather 
say, of the whole of Europe ? What ignorance, what corruption, what elements 
of social dissolution ! What desolation everywhere ! and it is amid this deplo- 
rable state of things that the holy solitary appears, the child of an illustrious 
family of Norcia, resolved to combat the evil which threatens to invade the 
world. His arms are his virtues ; the eloquence of his example gives him an 
irresistible ascendency ; elevated above the whole age, burning with zeal, and 
yet full of prudence and discretion, he founds that institution which is to re- 
main amid the revolution of ages, like the pyramids unmoved by the storms of 
the desert. 

What idea has there been more grand, more beneficent, more full of fore- 
sight and wisdom ? At a time when knowledge and virtue had no longer an 
asylum, when ignorance, corruption, and barbarism rapidly extended their con- 
quests, was it not a grand idea to raise a refuge for misfortune, to form a 
sacred deposit for the precious monuments of antiquity, and to open schools of 
knowledge and virtue, where men destined one day to figure in the vortex of 
the world might come for instruction ? When the reflecting man fixes his 
attention on the silent abode of Monte Cassino, where the sons of the most 
illustrious families of the empire are seen to come from all parts to that monas- 
tery; some with the intention of remaining there for ever, others to receive a 
good education, and soon to carry back to the world a recollection of the serious 
inspirations which the holy founder had received at Subiaco ; when the monas- 
teries of the order are seen to multiply everywhere, to be established as great 
centres of activity in all places — in the plains, in the forests, in the most unin- 
habited countries; he cannot help bending, with profound veneration, before 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



239 



the extraordinary man who has conceived such grand designs. If we are 
unwilling to acknowledge in St. Bennet a man inspired by Heaven, at least we 
ought to consider him as one of those geniuses who, from time to time, appear 
on earth to become the tutelary angels of the human race. 

Not to acknowledge the powerful effect of such institutions would be to show 
but little intelligence. When society is dissolved, it requires not words, not 
projects, not laws, but strong institutions, to resist the shock of the passions, 
the inconstancy of the human mind, and the destructive power of events j in- 
stitutions which raise the mind, pacify and ennoble the heart, and establish in 
society a deep movement of reaction and resistance to the fatal elements which 
lead it to destruction. If there exists, then, an active mind, a generous heart, 
a soul animated by a feeling of virtue, they will all hasten to seek a refuge in 
the sacred asylums ; it is not always granted to them to change the course of 
the world, but at least, as men of solitude and sacrifice, they labour to instruct 
and calm their own minds, and they shed a tear of compassion over the sense- 
less generations who are agitated by great disasters. From time to time they 
succeed in making their voices heard amid the tumult, to alarm the hearts of 
the wicked by accents which resemble the formidable warnings of Heaven ; 
thus they diminish the force of the evil while it is impossible to prevent it 
entirely ; by constantly protesting against iniquity, they prevent its acquiring 
prescriptive right; in attesting to future generations, by a solemn testimony, 
that there were always, amid darkness and corruption, men who made efforts to 
enlighten the world and to restrain the torrent of vice and crime, they preserve 
faith in truth and virtue, and they reanimate the hopes of those who are after- 
wards placed in similar circumstances. Such was the action of the monks in 
the calamitous times of which we speak ; such was their noble and sublime 
mission to promote the interests of humanity. 

Perhaps it will be said that the immense properties acquired by the monas- 
teries were an abundant recompense for their labors, and perhaps also a proof 
that their exertions were little disinterested. No doubt, if we look at things in 
the light in which certain writers have represented them, the wealth of the 
monks will appear as the fruit of unbounded cupidity, of cruelty, and perfidious 
policy; but we have the whole of history to refute the calumnies of the ene- 
mies of religion ; and impartial philosophy, while acknowledging that all that 
is human is liable to abuse, takes care to assume a higher position, to regard 
things en masse, and to consider them in the vast picture where so many centu- 
ries have painted their features. It therefore despises the evil, which is only 
the exception, while it contemplates and admires the good, which is the rule. 

Besides the numerous religious motives which brought property into the 
hands of the monks, there is another very legitimate one, which has always 
been regarded as one of the justest titles of acquisition. The monks cultivated 
waste lands, dried up marshes, constructed roads, restrained rivers within their 
beds, and built bridges over them j that is to say, in countries which had under- 
gone another kind of general deluge, they renewed, in some measure, what the 
first nations had done to restore the revolutionized globe to its original form. 
A considerable portion of Europe had never received cultivation from the hands 
of men ; the forests, the rivers, the lakes, the thorny thickets, were as rough as 
they had been left by the hands of nature. The monasteries which were 
founded here and there may be regarded as the centres of action, which the 
civilized nations established in the new countries, the faces of which they pro- 
posed to change by their powerful colonies. Did there ever exist a more legiti- 
mate title for the possession of large properties ? Is not he who reclaims a 
waste country, cultivates it, and fills it with inhabitants, worthy of preserving 
large possessions there ? Is not this the natural course of things ? Who knows 
how many cities and towns arose and flourished under the shadow of the abbeys ? 



240 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Monastic properties, "besides their substantial utility, had another, which per- 
haps has not been sufficiently noticed. The situation of a great part of the 
nations of Europe, at the time we speak of, much resembled the state of fluc- 
tuation and inconstancy in which nations are found, who have not yet made any 
progress in the career of civilization and refinement. The idea of property, 
one of the most fundamental in all social organization, was but little rooted. 
Attacks on property at that time were very frequent, as well as attacks on per- 
sons. The man who is constantly compelled to defend his own, is also con- 
stantly led to usurp the property of others y the first thing to do to remedy so 
great an evil, was to locate and fix the population by means of the agricultural 
life, and to accustom them to respect for property, not only by reasons drawn 
from morality and private interest, but also by the sight of large domains be- 
longing to establishments regarded as inviolable, and against which a hand 
could not be raised without sacrilege. Thus religious ideas were connected with 
social ones, and they slowly prepared an organization which was to be completed 
in more peaceable times. 

Add to this a new necessity, the result of the change which took place at 
that time in the habits of the people. Among the ancients, scarcely any other 
life than that of cities was known; life in the country, that dispersion of an 
immense population, which in modern times forms a new nation in the fields, 
was not known among the ancients ; and it is remarkable that this change in 
the mode of life was realized exactly when the most calamitous circumstances 
seemed to render it the most dangerous and difficult. It is to the existence of 
the monasteries in fields and in retired places that we owe the establishment 
and consolidation of this new kind of life, which, no doubt, would have been 
impossible without the ascendency and the beneficial influence of the powerful 
abbeys. These religious foundations joined all the riches and the power of feu- 
dal lords with the mild and beneficent influence of religious authority. 

How much does not Germany owe to the monks ! Did they not bring her 
lands into cultivation, make her agriculture flourish, and cover her with a 
numerous population ? How much are not France, Spain, and England indebted 
to them ! It is certain that this latter country would never have reached the 
high degree of civilization of which she now boasts, if the apostolic labors of the 
missionaries who penetrated thither in the sixth century had not drawn her out 
of the darkness of gross idolatry. And who were these missionaries ? Was 
not the chief of them Augustine, a monk full of zeal, sent by a Pope who had 
also been a monk, St. Gregory the Great ? "Where do you find, amid the confu- 
sion of the middle ages, the great writers of knowledge and virtue, except in 
those solitary abodes whence issue St. Isidore, the Archbishop of Seville ; the 
holy abbot St. Colunibanus; St. Aurelian, Bishop of Aries; St. Augustine, the 
Apostle of England ; that of Germany, St. Boniface ; Bede, Cuthbert, Auperth, 
Paul, monks of Monte Cassino ; Hincmar of Rheims, brought up at the monas- 
tery of St. Denis ; St. Peter Damiens, St. Ives, Lanfranc, and so many others, 
who form a generation of distinguished men, resembling in no respect the other 
men of their time. 

Besides the service rendered to society by the monks in religion and morals, 
they conferred inestimable benefits on letters and science. It has already been 
observed more than once, that letters took refuge in the cloisters, and that the 
monks, by preserving and copying the ancient manuscripts, prepared the mate- 
rials which were one day to assist in the restoration of human learning. But 
we must not limit their merit to that of mere copyists. Many of them advanced 
far in science, many ages in advance of the times in which they lived. Not 
content with the laborious task of preserving and putting into order the ancient 
manuscripts, they rendered the most eminent service to history by compiling 
chronicles. Thereby, while continuing the tradition of the most important 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



241 



branches of study, they collected the contemporary history, which, perhaps, 
without their labor would have been lost. Adon, Archbishop of Vienne, 
brought up in the Abbey of Ferriere, writes a universal history, from the be- 
ginning of the world to his own time ; Abbon, monk of St. Germain-des-Pres, 
composes a Latin poem, in which he relates the siege of Paris by the Normans; 
Aymon of Aquitaine writes the history of the French in four books ; St. Ives 
publishes a chronicle of their kings ; the German monk Witmar leaves us the 
chronicle of Henry I., of the Kings Otho and Henry II., which is much 
esteemed for its candor, and has been published many times ; Leibnitz has used 
it to throw light on the history of Brunswick. Adhemar is the author of a 
chronicle, which embraces the whole time from 829 to 1029. Glaber, monk 
of Cluny, has composed a much-esteemed history of the events which happened 
in France from 980 to his own time ; Herman, a chronicle which embraces the 
six ages of the world down to the year 1054. In fine, we should never finish 
if we were to mention the historical labors of Sigebert, Guibert, Hugh, Prior 
of St. Victor, and so many other illustrious men, who, rising above their times, 
applied themselves to labors of this kind ; of which we cannot easily appreciate 
the difficulty and the high degree of merit, we who live in an age when the 
means of knowledge are become so easy, when the accumulated riches of so 
many ages are inherited, and when we find on all sides wide and well-beaten 
paths. Without the existence of religious institutions, without the asylum of 
the cloisters, these eminent men would never have been formed. Not only had 
the sciences and letters been lost sight of, but ignorance was so great, that 
seculars who knew how to read and write were very rare. Surely such circum- 
stances were not well adapted to form men of merit enough to do honor to ad- 
vanced ages. Who has not often paused to contemplate the distinguished tri- 
umvirate, Peter the Venerable, St. Bernard, and the Abbot Suger ? May it not 
be said that the twelfth century is elevated above its rank in history, by pro- 
ducing a writer like Peter the Venerable, an orator like St. Bernard, and a 
statesman like Suger ? 

These ages show us another celebrated monk, whose influence on the progress 
of knowledge has not been rated at its just value by many critics who love only 
to point out defects : I mean Gratian. Those who have declaimed against him, 
eager to look for his mistakes, should have placed themselves in the position of 
a compiler in the thirteenth century, at a time when all resources were wanting, 
when the lights of criticism were yet to be created ; they would then have seen 
whether the bold enterprise of the monk was not attended with more success 
than there was reason to hope for. The profit which was drawn from the col- 
lection of Gratian is incalculable. By giving in a small compass a great part 
of what was most precious in antiquity with respect to civil and canon law ; by 
making an abundant collection of texts from the holy fathers, applied to all 
kinds of subjects, he awakened a taste for that species of research; he created 
the study of them ; he made an immense step towards satisfying one of the first 
necessities of modern nations, the formation of civil and ecclesiastical codes. It 
will be said that the errors of Gratian were contagious, and that it would have 
been better to have recourse directly to the originals ; but to read the originals 
it was necessary to know them ; it was necessary to be informed of their exist- 
ence, to be excited by the desire of explaining a proposed difficulty, to have 
acquired a taste for researches of that kind ; all this was wanting before Gra- 
tian; all this was brought out by his enterprise. The general favor with 
which his labors were received is the most convincing proof of their merit ; and 
if it be objected that this favor was owing to the ignorance of the time, I will 
reply, that we owe a tribute of gratitude to any one who throws a ray of light 
on the darkness, however feeble and wavering this ray may be. 



242 



CHAPTER XLII. 

OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE MIDDLE 
AGES. THE MILITARY ORDERS. 

The rapid view which we have just taken of religious institutions from the 
irruption of the barbarians to the twelfth century, has shown us that the monas- 
tic foundations, during that time, were a powerful support for that remaining 
portion of society which was ready to fall to pieces in the universal ruin ; an 
asylum for misfortune, for virtue, and for knowledge ; a storehouse for the pre- 
cious monuments of antiquity, and in some measure an assemblage of civilizing 
associations, which labored in silence at the reconstruction of the social edifice, 
by neutralizing the force of the dissolving principles which had ruined its basis ; 
they were, besides, a nursery for forming the men who were required for the 
elevated posts in Church and State. In the twelfth and the following centu- 
ries, these institutions take a new form, and assume a character very different 
from that which we have just pointed out. Their aim remains not less highly 
religious and social ; but the times are changed, and we must remember the 
words of the Apostle, omnia omnibus. Let us examine the causes and the 
results of these novelties. 

Before going further, I will say a few words on the religious military orders, 
the name of which sufficiently indicates their double character of monk and sol- 
dier. The union of the monastic state with war : what a monstrous mixture ! 
will be the cry. In spite of the supposed monstrosity, this union was in con- 
formity with the natural and regular order of things j it was a strong remedy 
applied to very great evils ; a rampart against imminent dangers ; in a word, 
the expression of a great European necessity. This is not the place to relate 
the annals of the military orders, annals which, like the most illustrious history, 
afford wonderful and interesting pictures, with that mixture of heroism and reli- 
gious inspiration which assimilates history with poetry. It is enough to pro- 
nounce the names of the knights of the Temple, of St. John of Jerusalem, of 
the Teutonic order, of St. Raymond, of the Abbot of Fitero, of Calatrava, 
instantly to remind the reader of a long series of marvellous events, forming 
one of the noblest pages in the history of that time. Let us omit these narra- 
tions, which do not regard us ; but let us pause for a moment to examine the 
origin and spirit of these famous institutions. 

The Cross and the Crescent were enemies irreconcilable by nature, and urged 
to the greatest fury by a long and bloody struggle. Both had great power and 
vast designs; both were supported by brave nations, full of enthusiasm and 
ready to throw themselves on each other; both had great hopes of success 
founded on former achievements; on which side will the victory remain ? What 
course ought the Christians to pursue in order to avoid the dangers which 
threaten them ? Is it better quietly to await the attack of the Mussulmen in 
Europe, or make a levy en masse to invade Asia and seek the enemy in his own 
country, where he believes himself to be invincible ? The problem was solved 
in the latter way; the Crusades took place, and centuries have given their suf- 
frage as to the wisdom of that resolution. What avails a little declamation 
affecting to favor the cause of justice and humanity? Let no one allow himself 
to be dazzled ; the philosophy of history taught by the lessons of experience, 
enriched with a more abundant treasure of knowledge, the fruit of a more atten- 
tive study of the facts, has given a decisive judgment in this case ; in this, as 
in other cases, religion has retired in triumph from the tribunal of philosophy. 
The Crusades, far from being considered as an act of barbarism and rashness, 
are justly regarded as a chef-d' 'osuvre of policy, which, after having secured the 
independence of Europe, gave to the Christian nations a decided preponderance 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



243 



over the Mussulmen. The military spirit was thereby increased and strength- 
ened among European nations ; they all received a feeling of fraternity, which 
transformed them into one people ; the human mind was developed in many 
ways ; the state of feudal vassals was improved, and feudality was urged towards 
its entire ruin ; navies were created, commerce and manufactures were encou- 
raged ; thus society received from the Crusades a most powerful impulse in the 
career of civilization. We do not mean to say, that the men who conceived 
them, the Popes who excited, the nations who undertook, the princes and lords 
who promoted them with their power, were aware of the whole extent of their 
own works, or even had a glimpse of the immensity of their results; it is enough 
that they settled the existing question in the way the most favorable to the 
independence and prosperity of Europe ; this, I repeat, is enough. I would 
observe, moreover, that we should attribute so much the more importance to 
things as human foresight has had little share in the events; now these things 
are nothing less than the principles and feelings of religion in connection with 
the preservation and happiness of society, Catholicity covering with her aegis 
and animating with her breath the civilization of Europe. 

Such were the Crusades. Now, remember that this idea, so great and 
generous, was conceived with a degree of vagueness, and executed with that 
precipitation which is the fruit of the impatience of ardent zeal ; remember that 
this idea — the offspring of Catholicity, which always converts its ideas into 
institutions — was to be realized in an institution, which faithfully represented 
it, and served, as it were, as its organ, in order that it might render itself felt, 
and gain strength and fruitfulness for its support. After this, you will look for 
some means of uniting religion and arms; and you will be filled with joy when, 
under a cuirass of steel, you shall find hearts zealous for the religion of Jesus 
Christ — when you shall see this new kind of men, who devote themselves with- 
out reserve to the defence of religion, while they renounce all that the world 
can offer — gentler than lambs, bolder than lions, in the words of St. Bernard. 
Sometimes they assembled in community, to raise their voices to Heaven in 
fervent prayer; sometimes they boldly marched to battle, brandishing their 
formidable lances, the terror of the Saracens. No ; there does not exist in the 
annals of history an event so colossal as the Crusades, and you might search 
there in vain for an institution more generous than the military orders. In the 
Crusades we see numberless nations arise, march across deserts, bury themselves 
in countries with which they are unacquainted, and expose themselves to all the 
rigors of climates and seasons ; and for what purpose ? To deliver a tomb ! 
Grand and immortal movement, where hundreds of nations advance to certain 
death — not in pursuit of a miserable self-interest — not to find an abode in milder 
and more fertile countries — not from an ardent desire to obtain for themselves 
earthly advantages — but inspired only by a religious idea, by a jealous desire to 
possess the tomb of Him who expired on the cross for the salvation of the 
human race ! When compared with this, what becomes of the lofty deeds of 
the Greeks, chanted by Homer ? Greece arises to avenge an injured husband ; 
Europe to redeem the sepulchre of a God. 

When, after the disasters and the triumphs of the Crusades, we see the mili- 
tary orders appear, sometimes fighting in the oriental regions, sometimes in the 
islands of the Mediterranean, sustaining and repelling the rude assaults of 
Islamism, which, emboldened by its victories, again longs to throw itself on 
Europe, we imagine that we behold those brave men, who, on the day of a great 
battle, remain alone upon the field, one against a hundred, securing by their 
heroism, and at the hazard of their lives, the safety of their companions in arms 
who retire behind them. Honor and glory to the religion which has been 
capable of inspiring such lofty thoughts, and has been able to realize such great 
and generous enterprises ! 



244 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT — EUROPE IN THE THIRTEENTH 

CENTURY. 

Perhaps they who are the most opposed to religious communities may be 
reconciled to the solitaries of the East, when they perceive in them a class of 
men who, by practising the most sublime and austere counsels of religion, have 
communicated a generous impulse to humanity, have raised it from the dust 
where Paganism had held it, and made it wing its flight towards purer regions. 
To accustom man to grave and strict morality ; to bring back the soul within 
itself ; to give a lively feeling of the dignity of his nature, of the loftiness of 
his origin and his destiny ; to inspire him, by means of extraordinary examples, 
with confidence that the mind, aided by divine grace, can triumph over the 
animal passions, and make man lead an angelic life upon earth : these are 
benefits so signal, that a noble heart must show itself grateful and full of lively 
interest for the men who have given them to the world. As to the monasteries 
of the West, the benefits of their civilizing influence are so visible, that no man 
who loves humanity can regard them with animadversion ; in fine, the military 
orders present us with an idea so noble, so poetical, and realize in so admirable 
a manner one of those golden dreams which cross the human mind in moments 
of enthusiasm, that they must certainly find respectful homage in every heart 
which beats at a noble and sublime spectacle. 

There yet remains a more difficult task, that of presenting at the tribunal of 
philosophy — that philosophy so indifferent in religious matters — the other reli- 
gious communities which are not comprised in the sketch which I have just 
made. Judgments of great severity have been passed upon those institutions 
which I have now to speak of; but in such things justice cannot be prescrip- 
tive. Neither the applause of irreligious men, nor the revolutions which upset 
all that stand in their way, can prevent the truth being placed in its true light, 
and folly and crime being stigmatized with disgrace. 

The thirteenth century has just commenced; there appears a new kind of 
men, who, under different titles, denominations, and forms, profess a singular and 
extraordinary way of life. Some put on clothing of coarse cloth ; they renounce 
all wealth and property; they condemn themselves to perpetual mendicity, 
spreading themselves over the country and the towns for the sake of gaining 
souls for Jesus Christ. Others bear on their dress the distinctive mark of the 
redemption of man, and undertake the mission of releasing from servitude the 
numberless captives who, from the misfortune of the times, have fallen into the 
hands of the Mussulmen. Some erect the cross in the midst of a people who 
eagerly follow them, and they institute a new devotion — a constant hymn of 
praise to Jesus and to Mary; at the same time they indefatigably preach the 
faith of the Crucified. Others go in search of all the miseries of man, bury 
themselves in hospitals, in all the asylums of misfortune, to succour and con- 
sole. They all bear new standards; all show equal contempt for the world; 
they all form a portion separate from the rest of mankind ; but they resemble 
neither the solitaries of the East, nor the sons of St. Bennet. The new monks 
arise not in the desert, but in the midst of society : their object is not to live 
shut up in monasteries, but to spread themselves over the fields and hamlets, 
to penetrate to the heart of the great masses of the population, and to make 
their voices heard both in the cottage of the shepherd and in the palace of the 
monarch. They increase on all sides in a prodigious manner. Italy, G-eimany, 
France, Spain, England, receive them ; numerous convents arise as if by 
enchantment in the villages and towns; the Popes protect them and enrich 
them with many privileges ; kings grant them the highest favors, and support 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



245 



them in their enterprises ; the people regard them with veneration, and listen 
to them with respectful docility. A religious movement appears on all sides ; 
religious institutions, more or less resembling each other, arise like the branches 
from the same trunk. The observer, when he sees this immense and astonish- 
ing picture, asks himself, What are the causes of so extraordinary a pheno- 
menon ? whence this singular movement ? what is its tendency ? what will be 
its effects on society ? 

When a fact of such high importance is realized all at once in many different 
countries, and lasts for centuries, it is a proof that there existed very powerful 
means to produce it. It is vain to be entirely forgetful of the views of Provi- 
dence : no one can deny that such a fact must have had its root in the essence 
of things ; consequently it is useless to declaim against the men and the insti- 
tutions. Acknowledging this, the true philosopher will not lose his time in 
anathematizing the fact, but he will examine and analyze it. No declamation 
or invectives against the monks can efface their history ; they have existed for 
many centuries, and centuries do not retrace their steps. 

We will not inquire if there was here some extraordinary design of Providence, 
&nd we will lay aside the reflections which religion suggests to every true 
Catholic ; we will confine ourselves to considering the religious institutions of 
modern times in a purely philosophical point of view ; we can show that they 
were not only very conformable to the well-being of society, but also perfectly 
adapted to the situation in which it was placed ; we can show that they displayed 
neither cunning, malice, nor vile self-interest ; that their object was highly 
advantageous, and that they were at the same time the expression and the 
fulfilment of great social necessities. 

The question of its own accord assumes the position in which we have just 
regarded it ; and it is strange that men have not acknowledged all the importance 
of the magnificent points of view which here present themselves. 

In order the better to clear up this important matter, I will enter upon an 
examination of the social condition of Europe at the time of which we speak. 
As soon as we take the first glance at this epoch, we observe that, in spite of the 
intellectual rudeness which one would imagine must have kept nations in abject 
silence, there was at the bottom of men's minds an anxiety which deeply moved 
and agitated them. These times are ignorant ; but it is an ignorance which is 
conscious of itself and which longs for knowledge. There is felt a want of 
harmony in the relations and institutions of society ; but that want is everywhere 
felt and acknowledged, and a continual agitation indicates that this harmony is 
anxiously desired and ardently sought for. I know not what singular character is 
stamped upon the nations of Europe, but we do not find there the symptoms of 
death • they are barbarous, ignorant, corrupt, any thing you please ; but, as if 
they constantly heard a voice calling them to light, to civilization, to a new life, 
they incessantly labor to leave the fatal condition into which unhappy circum- 
stances have plunged them. They never sleep in tranquillity amid the darkness ; 
they never live without remorse amid the corruption of manners. The echo of 
virtue continually resounds in their ears ; flashes of light appear in the darkness ; 
a thousand efforts are made to advance a step in the career of civilization ; a 
thousand times they are vain ; but they are renewed as often as they are repulsed ; 
the generous attempt is never abandoned ; they fail a thousand times ; but they 
never lose courage. Courage and ardour are never wanting. There is this 
remarkable difference between the nations of Europe, and those nations among 
whom the Christian religion has not yet penetrated, or from whose bosom it has 
been banished. Ancient Greece falls, never to rise again ; the Republics of the 
shore of Asia disappear, and do not rise out of their ruins. The ancient civili- 
zation of Egypt is broken to pieces by the conquerors, and posterity has scarcely 
preserved a remembrance of them. Certainly none of the nations on the coast 

v2 



246 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



of Africa can show us signs which reveal the ancient country of St. Cyprian, of 
Tertullian and St. Augustine. Still more ; a considerable portion of Asia has 
preserved Christianity, but a Christianity separated from Rome j and this has 
been unable to establish or regenerate any thing. Political power has aided 
and protected it, but the nation remains feeble ; it cannot stand erect ; it is a 
dead body, incapable of advancing ; it is not like Lazarus, who has just heard 
the all-powerful voice : " Lazarus, come forth; Lazare veni foras." 

This anxiety, this agitation, this extreme eagerness towards a greater and 
happier future, this desire for reformation in manners, for enlargement and cor- 
rection in ideas, for amelioration in institutions — the distinctive characteristics 
of modern nations — made themselves felt in a fearful manner at the time to 
which we allude. I will say nothing of the military history of those times, which 
would furnish us with abundant proofs of our assertion ; I will confine myself 
to facts which, owing to their religious and social character, have the greatest 
analogy with the subject which now occupies us. A formidable energy of mind, 
a great fund of activity, a simultaneous development of the most ardent passions, 
an enterprising spirit, a lively desire of independence, a decided inclination to 
employ violent means, an extraordinary zeal for proselytism, ignorance combined 
with a thirst for knowledge, even combined with enthusiasm and fanaticism for 
all that bears the name of science ; a high esteem for the titles of nobility, and 
of illustrious blood, united with the spirit of democracy, and a profound respect 
for merit, wherever it may be found ; a childlike candor, an excessive credu- 
lity, and, at the same time, the most obstinate indocility; a tenacious spirit of 
resistance, fearful stubbornness, corruption, and licentiousness of manners, allied 
with admiration for virtue ; a taste for the most austere practices, combined with 
an inclination for the most extravagant habits and manners ; such are the traits 
which history exhibits among these nations. 

So singular a mixture appears strange at first sight ; and yet nothing was 
more natural. Things could not be otherwise : societies are formed under the 
influence of certain principles, and of certain particular circumstances, which 
impart to them their genius, character, and countenance. It is the same with 
society as with individuals ; education, instruction, temperament, and a thousand 
other physical and moral circumstances, concur in forming a collection of influ- 
ences which produce qualities the most different, and sometimes the most contra- 
dictory. This concurrence of different causes was shown in a singular and extra- 
ordinary manner among the nations of Europe; it is on this account that we 
observe there the most extravagant and discordant effects. Let us recollect the 
history of those nations since the fall of the Roman empire to the end of the 
Crusades ; never did an assemblage of nations present a combination of more 
varied elements, and a spectacle of greater events. The moral principles which 
preside over the development of these nations were in direct opposition to their 
genius and situation. These principles were essentially pure, unchangeable as 
the God who had established them ; radiant with light, because they emanated 
from the source of all light and life : the nations, on the contrary, were igno- 
rant, rude, fluctuating, like the waves of the sea, and corrupted, as was to be 
expected of every thing which was the result of an impure mixture. "Wherefore 
a terrible struggle took place between principles and facts; wherefore there 
were witnessed the most extraordinary contradictions, according as good and evil 
alternately preponderated. Never was the struggle between elements which 
could not remain at peace, more clearly seen ; the genii of good and of evil 
seemed to descend into the arena, and to fight hand to hand. 

The nations of Europe were not in their infancy, for they were surrounded 
by old institutions. Full of the recollections of ancient civilization, they pre- 
served various remains of it. They were themselves produced by the mixture 
of a hundred nations, differing in laws, customs, and manners. They were not 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



247 



jet adult nations ; as this denomination cannot be applied either to individuals 
or to society before they have reached a certain development, from which the 
nations of Europe were still far removed. It is very difficult to find a word to 
express this social state ; it was neither a state of civilization, nor that of barba- 
rism ; for a number of laws and institutions existed there, which certainly did 
not deserve the epithet of barbarous. If we call these nations semi-barbarous, 
perhaps we shall approach the truth. "Words are of little importance, if we 
have a clear idea of the things. 

It cannot be denied that the European nations, owing to a long series of revo- 
lutions, and the extraordinary mixture of races, of ideas, and manners, of the 
conquerors with each other, and of the conquerors with the nations conquered, 
had a large portion of barbarism, and a fruitful germ of agitation and disorder. 
But the malignant influence of these elements was combated by the action of 
Christianity, which had obtained a decided preponderance * over minds, and 
which, besides, was supported by powerful institutions. Christianity, to accom- 
plish this difficult work, had the assistance of great material force. The Chris- 
tian doctrines, which penetrated on all sides, tended, like a sweetening liquid, 
to soften and improve every thing; but, at every step, the mind comes into 
collision with the senses, morality with the passions, order with anarchy, charity 
with ferocity, and law with fact. Thence a struggle, which, although general 
to a certain extent in all times and countries, since it is founded on the nature 
of man, was then more rude, violent, and clamorous. The two most opposite 
principles, barbarism and Christianity, were then face to face in the same arena, 
with no one between them. Observe these nations with attention, read their 
history with reflection, and you will see that those two principles are constantly 
struggling, and constantly contending for influence and preponderance ; thence 
the most strange situations, and the most singular contrasts. Study the charac- 
ter of the wars of that time, and you will hear the holiest maxims constantly 
proclaimed; legitimacy, law, reason, and justice are invoked; the tribunal of 
God is incessantly appealed to : this is the influence of Christianity. But, at 
the same time, you will be afflicted at the sight of numberless acts of violence, 
of cruelties, atrocities, pillages, rapines, murders, fires, and disasters without 
end : this is barbarism. If you look at the Crusades, you will observe that 
grand ideas, vast plans, noble inspirations, social and political views of the 
highest importance, fermented in men's heads ; that all hearts overflowed with 
noble and generous feelings, and that a holy enthusiasm, transporting men out 
of themselves, rendered them capable of heroic actions : this is the influence 
of Christianity. But, if you examine the execution, you will see disorder, im- 
providence, want of discipline in the armies, injuries, and acts of violence; you 
will seek in vain for concert and harmony among those who take part in the 
gigantic and perilous enterprise: there is barbarism. Youths, thirsting for 
knowledge, crowd to the lectures of the famous masters, from the most distant 
countries; Italians, Germans, English, Spanish, and French are mingled and 
confounded around the chairs of Abelard, Peter Lombard, Albertus Magnus, 
and St. Thomas of Aquin; a powerful voice resounds in their ears, calling them 
to leave the shades of ignorance and raise themselves to the regions of science ; 
the love of knowledge animates them; the longest journeys cannot stop them; 
the enthusiasm for illustrious masters is carried to an indescribable extent: 
behold the influence of Christianity; behold her constantly stirring and illumi- 
nating the mind of man, never allowing him to repose tranquilly in obscurity, 
and continually exciting him to new intellectual labors and researches after 
truth ! But behold these same youths, who exhibit such noble dispositions, and 
inspire such legitimate and consoling hopes; are they not also those licentious, 
restless, and turbulent young men, giving way to the most deplorable acts of 
violence, continually fighting in the streets, and forming in the midst of great 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



cities a small republic, an unruly democracy, where there is much difficulty in 
maintaining law and good order ? Behold here barbarism ! 

It is good, it is perfectly conformable to the spirit of religion, that the guilty 
man who raises a repentant and humiliated heart to God, should manifest his 
feeling and the affliction of his soul by external acts; that he should labor to 
fortify his mind, and restrain his evil inclinations, by employing the rigors of 
gospel austerity against his flesh : all this is sovereignly reasonable, just, holy, 
and conformable to the maxims of the Christian religion, which thus ordains 
for the justification and sanctification of the sinner, to repair the injury done 
to the souls of others by the scandal of a bad life. But that penitents, half 
naked, should wander about loaded with chains, carrying horror and alarm 
everywhere, as happened at this time, when we see ecclesiastical authority com- 
pelled to repress the abuse : this marks the spirit of rudeness and ferocity which 
always accompany the state of barbarism. Nothing is more true, noble, and 
salutary for society, than to imagine God always ready to defend innocence, to 
protect it against injustice and calumny, and to raise it above humiliation and 
disgrace, by restoring to it, sooner or later, the purity and lustre of which they 
have attempted to deprive it. This supposition is an effect of faith in Provi- 
dence — that faith emanating from Christian ideas, which represent to us God 
as embracing the whole world in his view, reaching with his penetrating eye the 
deepest recesses of the heart, and not even excluding the meanest of his 
creatures from his paternal love. But who does not perceive the infinite distance 
which separates this pure faith from the trials by fire, water, and single com- 
bat ? Who does not here discover rudeness confounding all things — the spirit 
of violence laboring to subject every thing to a rigorous law — attempting, in 
some measure, to oblige God himself to comply with our wants and caprices, in 
order to interpose the testimony of his solemn miracles, whenever it suits our 
pleasure or convenience to find out the truth ? 

I introduce these contrasts here in order to awaken the recollections of those 
who have read history, and to enable me to establish, in a few words, the simple 
and general formula which sums up all those periods : " Barbarism tempered by 
religion ; religion disfigured by barbarism." 

In the study of history we constantly encounter a serious obstacle, which 
renders it always difficult, and sometimes impossible, to understand it perfectly. 
We make the mistake of referring every thing to ourselves, and to the objects 
which surround us — a mistake which is excusable, no doubt, since it has its root 
in our own nature, but against which we must be carefully on our guard, if we 
wish to avoid deplorable errors. We imagine the men of other times to be like 
ourselves; without thinking of it, we communicate to them our own ideas, 
manners, inclinations, and even temperaments ; and, after having fashioned men 
who exist only in our own imaginations, we desire and demand that the real 
men should act in the same manner as these imaginary men ; and at the slightest 
discord between the historical facts and our unreasonable suppositions, we cry 
out that it is strange and monstrous, taxing with being strange and monstrous 
what was perfectly regular and ordinary according to the epoch. 

It is the same with respect to laws and institutions : when we do not find 
them according to the types which we have under our eyes, we declaim against 
the ignorance, iniquity, and cruelty of the men who have conceived and esta- 
blished them. If we wish to form an exact idea of an epoch, it is necessary to 
transport ourselves there — to make an effort of imagination, in order, as it 
were, to live and converse with its men ; it is not enough to hear the recital of 
the events, it is necessary to witness them, to become one of the spectators, one 
of the actors, if possible ; it is necessary to call forth generations from the 
tomb, and make them act under our eyes. I shall be told that this is very diffi- 
cult. I grant it ; but it is necessary, if we wish that our knowledge of history 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



249 



should be something more than a mere notion of names and dates. It is quite 
sure that we do not know an individual well, unless acquainted with his ideas, 
character, and conduct. It is the same with a society : if we are ignorant by 
what doctrines it was guided, what was its manner of considering and feeling 
things, we shall see the events only superficially — we shall know the words of 
the law, but we shall not penetrate its spirit or genius ; when contemplating an 
institution, we shall see only the external frame-work, without reaching the 
mechanism, or guessing the moving machinery. If we attempt to avoid these 
defects, it is certain that the study of history becomes the most difficult of all ; 
but this knowledge has been wanting for a long time. The secrets of man and 
the mysteries of society are, at the same time, the most important subject which 
can be proposed to the human mind, and the most arduous, the most difficult, 
and the least accessible to the generality of intellects. 

The individual in the times to which we allude was not the individual of 
to-day j his ideas were very different, his manner of seeing and feeling was not 
ours, his soul was of quite another temper from our own ; what is inconceivable 
to us, was perfectly natural to men of those times ; they took pleasure in what 
is now repugnant to us. 

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Europe had already experienced 
the powerful shock of the Crusades ; the sciences began to germinate ; the spirit 
of commerce was in some degree developed ; the taste for industry made itself 
felt; and the inclination of men to enter into communication with other men, 
and of nations to mingle with other nations, was every day extended and increased. 
The feudal system, already shaken, was about to fall to pieces; the power of the 
commonalty rapidly increased; the spirit of enfranchisement showed itself 
everywhere ; in fine, owing to the almost complete abolition of slavery, and to 
the change effected by the Crusades in the condition of vassals and serfs, Europe 
was covered with a numerous population who knew not slavery, and who bore 
with difficulty the feudal yoke. Yet this population was still far from possess- 
ing all that is necessary to rise to the rank of free citizens. Modern democracy 
already offered itself to the view, with its great advantages, its numerous diffi- 
culties, its immense problems, which still embarrass and disconcert us, after so 
many centuries of trial and experience. The lords preserved in great measure 
their habits of barbarism and ferocity, by which they had been unfortunately 
distinguished at former periods ; the royal power was far from having acquired 
that force and prestige necessary for ruling such opposite elements, and to raise 
itself in the midst of society as a symbol of respect for all interests — a centre of 
reunion for all forces, and a sublime personification of reason and justice. 

In the same century, wars began to assume a character more popular, and 
consequently more vast and important ; the agitations of the people began to 
wear the aspect of political commotions. Already we discover something more 
than the ambition of emperors attempting to impose their yoke on Italy ; we 
have no longer petty kings who contend for a crown or a province, or counts or 
barons who, followed by their serfs, fight with each other or with the neigh- 
boring municipalities, covering the land with blood and rapine. We observe 
in the movements of that period something more important and alarming. 
Numerous nations arise and crowd around a banner on which, instead of the 
ensigns of a baron or of a monarch, appears the name of a system of doctrines. 
No doubt, the lords take part in the struggle, and their power raises them still 
far above the crowd which surrounds and follows them ; but the cause in ques- 
tion is not that of these men ; they are accounted something in the problems 
of the times ; but mankind looks beyond the horizon of castles. This agitation 
and movement, produced by the appearance of new religious and social doc- 
trines, is the announcement and the beginning of that chain of revolutions 
which Europe has to undergo. 



250 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



The evil did not consist in the disposition of nations to carry out their ideas, 
and refuse to take as their only guide the interests and doctrines of a few 
tyrants. On the contrary, this was a great step gained in the path of civiliza- 
tion j men thus showed that they felt and understood their own dignity better, 
that they took a more extended view, and had a better understanding of their 
own situation and interests. This progress was the natural result of the higher 
flight which was every day taken by the faculties of the mind. The Crusades 
had greatly contributed to this new movement ; from that great epoch the dif- 
ferent nations of Europe were accustomed no longer to fight for the possession 
of a small territory, or to gratify private ambition or revenge. The nations 
fought in support of a principle by laboring to avenge the outrage offered to 
the true religion ; in a word, they became accustomed to be moved, to contend, 
to die, for an idea which, far from being limited to a small territory, embraced 
heaven and earth. Thus, we will observe in passing, that the popular move- 
ment, the movement in ideas, began in Spain much sooner than in the rest of 
Europe, because the war against the Moors had advanced the period of the 
Crusades for that country. The evil, I repeat it, was not in the interest which 
the people took in ideas, but in the imminent danger of seeing those nations, on 
account of their rudeness and ignorance, allow themselves to be abused and 
deceived by the first fanatic who came. At a moment when the movement 
was so vast, the fate of Europe depended on the direction which was about to 
be given to the universal activity : unless I am deceived, the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries were the critical epochs, when, in the face of great probabilities 
on both sides, there was decided the great question of knowing whether Europe, 
in its twofold social and political relations, was to take advantage of the benefits 
of Christianity, or permit all the promise of a better future to be lost and 
annihilated. 

When we fix our eyes on this period, we find, in different parts of Europe, a 
certain germ and index of the greatest disasters; the most horrible doctrines 
arise among the masses who begin to be agitated; the most fearful disorders 
signalize the first step of these nations in the career of life. Before this, we 
have discovered only kings and lords, but now the people appear on the scene. 
Thus we see that some rays of light and heat have penetrated this shapeless 
mass. At this sight the heart is dilated and encouraged, presaging the new 
future which is reserved for humanity. But, at the same time, the observer is 
alarmed, for he is aware that this heat may produce excessive fermentation, 
engender corruption, and multiply impure insects in the field which promises 
soon to become an enchanting garden. 

The extravagances of the human mind at this time appear under so alarming 
an aspect, and with a turbulence of character so fearful, that apprehensions 
apparently the most exaggerated are supported by facts, and become terrible 
probabilities. Let me recall some of those facts which so vividly paint the 
condition of minds at that time ; facts which besides are connected with the 
principal point which we are examining. At the beginning of the twelfth cen- 
tury, we find the famous Tancheme, or Tanquelin, teaching the maddest theories 
and committing the greatest crimes ; yet at Antwerp, in Zealand, in the coun- 
try of Utrecht, and in many other towns in the same countries, he draws after 
him a numerous crowd. This wretched man advanced that he was more worthy 
of supreme worship than Jesus Christ himself, "for," said he, "if Jesus Christ 
had received the Holy Spirit, he (Tancheme) had received the plenitude of that 
Holy Spirit." He added that the whole Church was comprised in his own person 
and in his disciples. The pontificate, episcopate, and priesthood were, accord- 
ing to him, mere chimeras. His instructions and discourses were particularly 
addressed to women j the result of his doctrines and proceedings was the most 
revolting corruption. Yet the fanaticism which was excited by this abominable 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



251 



man went so far that the sick eagerly drank the water in which he had bathed, 
believing it to be the most salutary remedy for body and soul. Women thought 
themselves happy to have obtained the favors of the monster ; mothers consi- 
dered it an honor for their daughters to be selected as the victims of his profli- 
gacy, and husbands were offended when their wives were not stained with this 
disgrace. Tancheme, knowing all the ascendency which he was able to exert 
over minds, was not backward in making use of the fanaticism of his followers; 
one of the principal virtues with which he labored to inspire them was liberality 
in favor of his own interest. 

One day when he was surrounded with a large concourse of people, he had a 
picture of the Virgin brought to him ; touching it with his sacrilegious hand, 
he said that he took the Virgin as his wife. Then, turning toward the specta- 
tors, he added, that as he had contracted marriage with the Queen of Heaven, 
as they had just seen, it was their duty to make the wedding presents. He 
immediately placed two boxes, one on the right and the other on the left of the 
picture, to receive on one side the offerings of the men, and on the other those 
of the women ; for the purpose of learning, as he said, which of the two sexes 
had the greater affection for him. This artifice, as low and gross as it was sacri- 
legious, seemed only calculated to excite the indignation of those who were 
present ; yet the results corresponded with the expectations of the artful im- 
postor. The women, always jealous of the affection of Tancheme, surpassed in 
liberality; in a perfect frenzy, they stripped themselves of their necklaces, 
golden rings, and most precious jewels. 

When he felt himself strong enough, Tancheme did not content himself with 
preaching; he was desirous of surrounding himself with an armed troop, in 
order to give him in the eyes of the world a far different appearance from that 
of an apostle. Three thousand men accompanied him everywhere. Surrounded 
by this respectable escort, clothed in magnificent apparel, and preceded by his 
standard, he moved with all the pomp of a king. When he stopped to preach, 
the three thousand satellites stood armed around him with drawn swords. It is 
evident, the aggressive character of the heretical sects of succeeding ages was 
already traced out. 

Every one knows how numerous were the partisans of Eon. This unhappy 
man was excited by hearing the frequent repetition of the words : " Per eum 
qui judicaturus est vivos et mortuos and he became persuaded and he as- 
serted, that he himself was the judge who was to judge the living and the dead. 
We are also aware of the troubles excited by the seditious speeches of Arnauld 
of Brescia, the iconoclastic fanaticism of Pierre de Bruis and Henri. If I did 
not fear to fatigue the attention of my readers, it would be easy for me to re- 
late here the most revolting scenes which represent to the life the spirit of the 
sects of those times, and the unfortunate predisposition which led men's minds 
to novelty, to extravagant spectacles, and I know not what fatal giddiness, 
whereby they were precipitated into the most strange errors and the most de- 
plorable excesses. At all events, I must say a few words of the Cathari, Vau- 
dois, Paterins of Arras, Albigenses, and poor men of Lyons. These sects, 
besides the influence which they had on the times of which we speak and on the 
later events of European history, will be of great use in making us fathom 
more deeply the question now before us. From the first ages of the Church, 
the sect of the Manichees was remarkable for errors and extravagances. Under 
different names, with more or less of followers, and with doctrines more or less 
various, it continued from age to age until the eleventh century, when it excited 
disturbances in France. From that time, Heribert and Lisoy acquired an un- 
happy celebrity by their obstinacy and fanaticism. In the time of St. Bernard, 
the sects called apostolical were distinguished by their dislike to marriage ; 
while, on the other hand, they gave themselves up to the basest and most un- 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



bridled licentiousness. Nevertheless, all these irregularities were favorably 
received by the ignorance or the corruption of the people. This is proved by 
the rapidity with which they gained the masses and spread like a pestilence 
wherever they appeared. Besides the hypocrisy, which is common to all the 
sects, that of the Manichees imagined an artifice the most apt to seduce rude 
and ignorant people : they appeared with the most rigid austerity and the most 
miserable clothes. Before the year 1181, we see the Manichees bold enough 
to venture out of their conventicles and openly teach their doctrines in the light 
of day. They associated with the celebrated bandits called Cottereaux, and 
feared not to commit all sorts of excesses, as they had seduced some knights and 
had secured the protection of some seigneurs of the country of Toulouse \ they 
succeeded in exciting a formidable insurrection, which could be repressed only 
by force of arms. An eye-witness, Stephen, Abbot of St. Genevieve, at that 
time sent to Toulouse by the king, describes to us in a few words the acts of 
violence committed by these sectaries : " I have seen on all sides," he says, 
" churches burnt and ruined to their foundations : I have seen the dwellings of 
men changed into the dens of beasts." 

About the same time, the Vaudois, or poor men of Lyons, became famous. 
This last name was given to them on account of their extreme poverty, their 
contempt for all riches, and the rags with which they were covered. Their 
shoes also gave them the name of Sabatathes. They were perverse imitators of 
another kind of poor, celebrated at that time, and who were distinguished by 
their virtues, and particularly by their spirit of humility and disinterestedness. 
These latter, who formed a kind of association, comprising priests and laymen, 
attracted the respect and esteem of real Christians, and obtained the Pope's 
permission to teach publicly. The disciples showed a profound contempt for 
Church authority; they afterwards entertained monstrous errors, and in the end 
became a sect in opposition to religion, injurious to good morals, and incompati- 
ble with public tranquillity. 

These errors, which were the germs of so many calamities and troubles, could 
not be extirpated ; with time they became more and more rooted in various 
countries, and the progress of things was so fatal, that at the beginning of the thir- 
teenth century the period of short-lived seditions and isolated troubles was already 
long gone by, the errors had already spread on a large scale, and appeared with 
formidable resources for the contest. Already the south of France, agitated by 
civil discord, and precipitated into a fearful war, was in a state of terrible conflict. 
In the political organization of that time, the throne had not strength enough 
to exercise a controlling power, the lords had still the means of resisting kings 
and doing violence to the people. When a spirit of disobedience, agitation, 
and movement is spread throughout the masses, there is only one means of 
restraining them, that of religion ; and this very ascendency of religious ideas 
was taken advantage of by the wicked and the fanatical ; and to mislead the 
multitude they availed themselves of violent declamation, where religion and 
politics formed a confused mixture, and where the spirit of austerity and disin- 
terestedness was the subject of hypocritical affectation. The new errors were 
no longer confined to subtile attacks on particular dogmas, they assailed the 
fundamental ideas of religion, penetrated to the sanctuary of the family, on the 
one side condemning marriage, and on the other promoting infamous abomina- 
tions : in fine, the evil was not limited to countries which by a tardy and in- 
complete initiation into the doctrines of Christianity, or for any other reason, 
had not fully participated in the European movement. The arena principally 
chosen was the south ; that is, the country where the human mind was deve- 
loped in the most prompt and lively manner. 

In the midst of such a concourse of unfortunate circumstances, all attested 
and placed beyond a doubt by history, was not the future of Europe very dark 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



253 



and tempestuous ? Ideas and manners were in imminent danger of taking a 
wrong direction ; the bands of authority, the ties of family, seemed ready to 
break asunder ; the nations might be led away by fanaticism or superstition ; 
Europe was in danger of being replunged into the chaos whence it had emerged 
with so much difficulty. At that time the Crescent shone in Spain, it reigned 
in Africa, it triumphed in Asia. "Was Europe at such a moment to lose her 
religious unity, and see new errors penetrate everywhere, sowing schism in all 
countries, and with it discord and war ? Were all the elements of civilization 
and refinement created by Christianity to be dispersed and stricken with sterility 
for ever ? "Were the great nations formed under the influence of Catholicity, . 
the laws and institutions impregnated with that divine religion, to be corrupted, 
falsified, and destroyed by changes in the ancient faith ? In fine, was the course 
of European civilization to be violently diverted, and were the nations who were 
already advancing towards a peaceful, prosperous, and glorious future, to be 
condemned to see their most flattering hopes dissipated in a moment, and mise- 
rably to retrograde towards barbarism ? Such was then the vast problem placed 
before society; and I fear not to assert that the religious movement which at 
that time displayed itself in so extraordinary a manner, and the new religious 
institutions, so inconsiderately accused of folly and extravagance, were a power- 
ful means employed by Providence to save religion and society. If the illus- 
trious Spaniard, St. Dominic de G-uzman, and the wonderful man of Assisi, did 
not occupy a place on our altars, there to receive the veneration of the faithful 
for their eminent sanctity, they would deserve to have statues raised to them by 
the gratitude of society and humanity. But what ! are our words an object of 
scandal to you, who have only read and considered history through the deceit- 
ful medium of Protestant and philosophical prejudices ? Tell us, then, what 
you find reprehensible in these men, whose establishments have been the sub- 
ject of your endless diatribes, as if they had been the greatest calamities of the 
human race ? Their doctrines are those of the Gospel ; they are the same doc- 
trines, to the loftiness and sanctity whereof you have been compelled to render 
solemn homage, and their lives are pure, holy, heroic, and conformable in every 
thing to their teachings. Ask them what is the object they have in view; that 
of preaching the Catholic truth to all men, they will tell you ; of making every 
effort, of exerting every energy to destroy error and reform morals ; of in- 
spiring nations with the respect which is due to all legitimate authorities, civil 
and ecclesiastical. That is to say, you will find among them a firm resolution 
to devote their lives to remedy the evils of Church and State. 

They do not content themselves with barren wishes ; they are not satisfied 
with a few discourses and transitory efforts ; they do not confine their plans to 
their mere personal sphere, but, extending their views to all countries and 
future times, they found institutions whereof the members may spread them- 
selves over the whole surface of the world, and transmit to future generations 
the apostolical spirit which has inspired them with their grand ideas. The 
poverty to which they condemn themselves is extreme; the dress they wear is 
rude and miserable ; but do you not see the profound reasons for this conduct ? 
Remember that they propose to renew the gospel spirit, so much forgotten in 
their time ; that they frequently happen to meet face to face the emissaries of 
the corrupt sects, who, endeavoring to imitate Christian humility, and affecting 
an absolute disinterestedness, make a parade of presenting themselves in public 
in the garb of beggars ; remember, in fine, that they go to preach to semi-bar- 
barous nations, and that to preserve them from the giddiness of error which has 
begun to take possession of their heads, words are not enough, even accompa- 
panied by a regular and uniform conduct ; extraordinary examples, a mode of 
life which bears with it the most powerful edification, and sanctity clothed 



254 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



with an exterior adapted to make a lively impression on the imagination, are 
required. 

The number of the new religious is very considerable ) they increase without 
measure in all the countries where they are established j they are found, not 
only in the country and in the hamlets, but they penetrate into the midst of the 
most populous cities. Observe, that Europe is no longer composed of a collec- 
tion of small towns and wretched cottages erected round feudal castles, and 
humbly obedient to the authority or the influence of a proud baron ; Europe 
no longer consists of villages grouped round rich abbeys, listening with docility 
to the instructions of the monks, and receiving with gratitude the benefits con- 
ferred on them. A great number of vassals have already thrown off the yoke 
of their lords ; powerful municipalities arise on all sides, and in their presence 
the feudal system is frequently compelled to humble itself in alarm. Towns 
become every day more populous — every day, from the effects of the emancipa- 
tion which takes place in the country, they receive new families. Reviving 
industry and commerce display new means of subsistence, and excite an increase 
of population. It results from all this that religion and morality must act upon 
the nations of Europe on a larger scale ; more general means, issuing from a 
common centre, and freed from ordinary fetters, are necessary to satisfy the new 
necessities of the time. Such are the religious institutions of the time of which 
we speak ; this is the explanation of their astonishing number, of their nume- 
rous privileges, and of that remarkable regulation which places them under the 
immediate control of the Pope. 

Even the character which marked these institutions — a character in some de- 
gree democratic, not only because men of all classes are there united, but also 
because of the special organization of their government — was eminently calcu- 
lated to give efficacy to their influence over a democracy, fierce, turbulent, and 
proud of its recent liberty, and consequently little disposed to sympathize with 
any thing which might have been presented to it under aristocratic or exclusive 
forms. This democracy found in these new religious institutions a certain ana- 
logy with its own existence and origin. These men come from the people, they 
live in constant communication with them, and, like them, they are poor and 
meanly clad -> and as the people have their assemblies where they choose their 
municipal officers and bailiffs, so do the religious hold their chapters, where 
they name their priors and provincials. They are not anchorites living in remote 
deserts, nor monks sheltered in rich abbeys, nor clergy whose functions and 
duties are confined to any particular country. They are men without fixed 
abodes, and who are found sometimes in populous cities and sometimes in mise- 
rable hamlets — to-day in the midst of the old continent, to-morrow on a vessel 
which bears them to perilous missions in the remotest countries of the globe ; 
sometimes they are seen in the palaces of kings, enlightening their councils, and 
taking part in the highest affairs of state ; sometimes in the dwellings of obscure 
families, consoling them in misfortune, making up their quarrels, and giving 
them advice on their domestic affairs. These same men, who are covered with 
glory in the chairs of the universities, teach catechism to children in the hum- 
blest boroughs ; illustrious orators who have preached in courts, before kings 
and great men, go to explain the Grospel in obscure villages. The people find 
them everywhere, meet them at every step, in joy and in sorrow; these men 
are constantly ready to take part in the happy festivities of a baptism which 
fills the house with joy, or to lament a misfortune which has just covered it with 
mourning. 

We can imagine without difficulty the force and ascendency of such institu- 
tions. This influence on the minds of nations must have been incalculable ; 
the new sects which tended to mislead the multitude by their pestilential doc- 
trines, found themselves face to face with an adversary who completely con- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



255 



quered them. They wished to seduce the simple by the ostentation of great 
austerity and wonderful disinterestedness ; they desired to deceive the imagina- 
tion, by striking it with the sight of exterior mortification, of poor and mean 
clothing. The new institutions united these qualities in an extraordinary man- 
ner. Thus the true doctrine had the same attributes which error had assumed. 
From among the classes of the people there come forth violent declaimers, who 
captivate the attention and take possession of the minds of the multitude by 
fiery eloquence. In all parts of Europe we meet with burning orators, pleading 
the cause of truth, who, well versed in the passions, ideas, and tastes of the 
multitude, know how to interest, move, and direct them, making use, in de- 
fence of religion, of what others attempt to avail themselves of in attacking 
her. They are found wheresoever they are wanted to combat the efforts of 
sects. Free from all worldly ties, and belonging to no particular church, pro- 
vince, or kingdom, they have all the means of passing rapidly from one place to 
another, and are found at the proper time wherever their presence is urgently 
required. 

The strength of association, known to the sectaries, and used by them with 
so much success, is found in a remarkable degree in these new religious institu- 
tions. The individual has no will of his own : a vow of perpetual obedience 
has placed him at the disposal of another's will ; and this latter is in his turn 
subject to a third; thus there is formed a chain, whereof the first link is in the 
hands of the Pope; the strength of association, and that of unity, are thus 
united in authority. There is all the motion, all the warmth of a democracy ; 
all the vigor, all the promptitude of monarchy. 

It has been said that these institutions were a powerful support to the authority 
of the Popes ; this is certain : we may even add, that if these institutions had 
not existed, the fatal schism of Luther would perhaps have taken place centu- 
ries earlier. But, on the other hand, we must allow that the establishment of 
them was not due to projects of the papacy ; the Sovereign Pontiffs did not con- 
ceive the idea of them; isolated individuals, guided by superior inspiration, 
formed the design, traced out the plan, and submitting that plan to the judg- 
ment of the Holy See, asked for authority to realize their enterprise. Civil 
institutions, intended to consolidate and aggrandize the power of kings, emanate 
sometimes from monarchs themselves, sometimes from some of their ministers, 
who, identifying themselves with their views and interests, have formed and 
executed the idea of the throne. It is not thus with the power of the Popes ; 
the support of new institutions contributes to sustain that power against the 
attacks of dissenting sects ; but the idea of founding the institutions themselves 
comes neither from the Popes nor their ministers. Unknown men suddenly 
arise among the people ; nothing which has taken place affords reason to suspect 
them of having any previous understanding with Rome ; their entire lives attest 
that they have acted by virtue of inspiration, communicated to themselves, an 
inspiration which does not allow them any repose, until they have executed 
what was prescribed to them. There are not, there cannot be, any private de- 
signs of Rome ; ambition has no share. From this, all sensible men should 
draw one of these two consequences : either the appearance of these new insti- 
tutions was the work of God, who was desirous of saving His Church by sus- 
taining her against new attacks, and protecting the authority of the Roman Pon- 
tiff ; or, Catholicity herself contained within her breast a saving instinct which 
led her to create these institutions, which were required to enable her to come 
triumphant out of the fearful crisis in which she was engaged. To Catholics, 
these two propositions are identical : in both we see only the fulfilment of the 
promise, "On this rock I toill build my Churchy and the gates of hell shall never 
prevail against her." Philosophers who do not regard things by the light of 
faith, in order to explain this phenomenon, may make use of what terms they 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



please ; but they will be compelled to acknowledge that wonderful wisdom and 
the highest degree of foresight appear at the bottom of these facts. If they 
persist in not acknowledging the finger of God, and in seeing in the course of 
events only the fruit of well-concerted plans, or the result of organization com- 
bined with art, at least they cannot refuse a sort of homage to these plans and 
that organization. Indeed, as they confess that the power of the Roman Pontiff, 
considered in relations merely philosophical, is the most wonderful of all the 
powers which have appeared on earth, is it not evident that the society called 
the Catholic Church shows in her conduct, in the spirit of life which animates 
her, and in the instinct which makes her resist her greatest enemies, the most 
incomprehensible combination of phenomena which have ever been witnessed in 
society ? It is of little importance to the truth, whether you call this instinct, 
mystery, spirit, or whatever name you please. Catholicity defies all societies, 
all sects, and all schools, to realize what she has realized, to triumph over what 
she has triumphed over, and to pass through, without perishing, the crises 
through which she has passed. A few examples, where the work of God was 
more or less imitated, may be alleged against us; but the magicians of Egypt, 
placed in the presence of Moses, came to an end of their artifices ; the envoy of 
God performed wonders which they could not ; and they were compelled to ex- 
claim, "The finger of God is here — the finger of God is here!" 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES. 

When viewing the religious institutions produced by the Church during the 
thirteenth century, we did not pause to consider one among them, which, to the 
merit of participating in the glory of the others, adds a peculiar character of 
beauty and sublimity, and which is inexpressibly worthy of our attention : I 
speak of that institution, the object of which was to redeem captives from the 
hands of the Infidels. If I make use of this general designation, it is because 
I do not intend to enter into a particular examination of the various branches 
which compose it. I consider the unity of the object, and, on account of that 
unity, I attribute unity to the institution itself. Thanks to the happy change 
which has taken place in the circumstances which occasioned its foundation, we 
can now scarcely estimate the institution at its just value, and appreciate in a 
proper manner the beneficent influence and the holy enthusiasm which it must 
have produced in all Christian countries. 

In consequence of the long wars with the Infidels, a very great number of 
the faithful groaned in fetters, deprived of their liberty and country, and often 
in danger of apostatizing from the faith of their fathers. The Moors still occu- 
pied a considerable part of Spain ; they reigned exclusively on the coasts of 
Africa, and proudly triumphed in the East, where the Crusaders had been van- 
quished. The Infidels thus held the south of Europe closely confined, and were 
constantly able to seize favorable moments, and procure multitudes of Christian 
slaves. The revolutions and disorders of those times continually offered favora- 
ble opportunities ; both hatred and cupidity urged them to gratify their revenge 
on the Christians taken unawares. We may be sure that this was one of the 
severest scourges which the human race had to endure at that time in Europe. 
If the word charity was to be any thing more than a mere name, if the nations 
of Europe were not to allow their bonds of fraternity and the ties which connected 
their common interests to be destroyed, there was an urgent necessity for them 
to come to an understanding, in order to remedy this evil. The veteran who, 
instead of a reward for his long services to religion and his country, had found 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 257 



slavery in the depths of a dungeon ; the merchant who, ploughing the seas to 
carry provisions to the Christian armies, had fallen into the power of an impla- 
cable enemy, and paid by heavy chains for the boldness of his enterprise ; the 
timid virgin who, playing upon the sea-shore, had been perfidiously carried 
away by the merciless pirates, like a dove borne away by a hawk : — all these 
unfortunate beings had undoubtedly some right to be looked at with compassion 
by their brethren in Europe, and to have an effort made to restore them to 
liberty. 

How shall this charitable end be attained ? Can means be employed to 
accomplish an enterprise which cannot be confided either to force or stratagem ? 
Nothing is more fertile in resources than Catholicity. Whatever may be the 
necessity which presents itself, she immediately finds proper means of succor 
and remedy, if allowed to act with freedom. The remonstrances and negotia- 
tions of Christian princes could obtain nothing in favor of the captives ) new 
wars undertaken for this purpose only served to increase the public calamities — 
they deteriorated the lot of those who groaned in slavery, and perhaps increased 
their number, by sending them fresh companions in misfortune ; pecuniary 
means, without a central point of action and direction, produced but little fruit, 
and were lost in the hands of agents. What resource, then, does there remain ? 
The powerful resource which is always found in the hands of the Catholic reli- 
gion — the secret whereby she accomplishes her greatest enterprises, viz. charity. 

But how ought this charity to act ? In the same way as all the virtues of 
Catholicity. This divine religion, which has come down from the loftiest regions, 
and constantly raises the human mind to sublime meditations, presents at the 
same time a singular characteristic, whereby she is distinguished from all the 
schools and sects who have attempted to imitate her. In spite of the spirit of 
abstraction, if I may so speak, which holds her continually detached from earthly 
things, she has nothing vague, unsubstantial, or merely theoretical. With her, 
all is speculative and practical, sublime and simple; she adapts and accom- 
modates herself to all that is compatible with the truth of her dogmas and the 
severity of her maxims. While her eyes are fixed on heaven, she forgets not 
that she is on earth, and that she has to deal with mortal men, subject to miseries 
and calamities. With one hand she shows them eternity, with the other she 
succors their misfortunes, solaces their pains, and dries up their tears. She 
does not content herself with barren words ; the love of our neighbor is to her 
nothing, if that love does not manifest itself in giving bread to him who is 
hungry, drink to him who is thirsty ; in clothing the naked, consoling the 
afflicted, visiting the sick, solacing the prisoner, and redeeming the captive. To 
make use of an expression of this age, I will say that religion is eminently 
positive. Wherefore she labors to realize her ideas by means of beneficent and 
fruitful institutions, thereby distinguishing herself from human philosophy, the 
pompous language and gigantic projects of which form so miserable a contrast 
with the littleness and nothingness of its works. Religion speaks little, but she 
meditates and executes as the worthy daughter of that infinite Being who, 
although absorbed in the contemplation of an ocean of light, His own essence 
and His impenetrable nature, has not the less created the universe the object of 
our admiration, and ceases not to preserve it with ineffable goodness, while 
governing it with incomprehensible wisdom. 

It was necessary to go to the succor of the unhappy captives; assuredly, 
therefore, we should applaud the idea of a vast association, which, extending 
over all the countries of Europe, and placing itself in connection with all the 
Christians who would give alms in favor of so holy a work, would have in its 
service a certain number of individuals always ready to traverse the seas, and 
resolved to brave slavery and death for the redemption of their brethren. Nume- 
rous means would be thus combined, and the good employment of the funds 
33 w 2 



258 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



would be secured. There was a certainty that the negotiations for the redemption 
of captives would be conducted by men of zeal and experience; in a word, such 
an association would completely fulfil its object; and when it was established, 
the Christians might hope for the most prompt and efficacious succor. Now, 
this was precisely the idea realized in the foundation of the religious orders for 
the redemption of captives. 

The religious who embraced these orders bound themselves by vow to the 
accomplishment of this work of charity. Free from the embarrassments of 
family relations and worldly interests, they could devote themselves to their 
task with all the ardor of their zeal. Long voyages, the perils of the sea, the 
danger of unhealthy climates, or the ferocity of the Infidels — nothing stopped 
them. In their dress, in the prayers of their institution, they found a constant 
remembrance of the vow which they had taken in the Divine presence. Neither 
repose, comfort, nor even their very lives, any longer belong to them ; all are 
become the property of the unhappy captives, who groan in the dungeons or 
wear heavy chains in presence of their masters, on' the other side of the Medi- 
terranean. The families of the unhappy victims, fixing their eyes on the reli- 
gious, required of him the accomplishment of his promise ; their groans and 
lamentations continually urge him to find means, and to expose his life, if 
necessary, to restore the father to the son, the son to the father, the husband to 
the wife, the innocent young girl to her desolate mother. 

From the earliest ages of Christianity we see great zeal displayed for the 
redemption of captives, which has always been preserved, and the inspiration 
of which from that time has called forth the greatest sacrifices. The seventeenth 
chapter of this work, and the notes attached to it, have incontestably proved 
this truth ; and it is not necessary that I should stay to confirm it here. Yet 
I will not lose the opportunity of observing that the Church, in the present 
case, as in all circumstances, has adopted her constant rule, viz. to realize her 
ideas by means of institutions. If you observe her conduct attentively, you 
will find that she begins by teaching and highly extolling a virtue ; then she 
mildly persuades men to put it in practice; the practice extends and gains 
strength, and what was merely a good work becomes for some a work of obliga- 
tion ; what was a simple wise act is converted into a strict duty for some select 
mien. At all times has the Church been engaged in the redemption of captives; 
; at all times some Christians of heroic charity have stripped themselves of their 
.property, of their liberty, to accomplish this work of mercy; but this care was 
still left to the discretion of the faithful, and no bodies of men existed to 
represent this charitable idea. New necessities arise ; the ordinary means do 
not suffice ; it is necessary that aid should be collected with promptitude, and 
employed with discernment ; charity, as it were, requires an arm always ready 
to execute her orders; a permanent institution becomes necessary; the institu- 
tion appears, and the want is satisfied. 

We are so accustomed to see the beautiful and the sublime in the work of 
religion, that we scarcely observe the greatest prodigies there, in the same way 
as, while profiting by the benefits of nature, we look upon her most wonderful 
works and productions with an eye of indifference. The different religious 
institutions which, under various forms, have appeared since the beginning of 
Christianity, are worthy of exciting in the highest degree the astonishment of 
the philosopher and the Christian ; but I doubt whether it be possible to find in 
the whole history of these institutions any thing more beautiful, interesting, and 
touching, than the picture of the orders for the redemption of captives. Does 
there exist a more admirable symbol of religion protecting the unfortunate ? 
Which is the most sublime emblem of the redemption consummated on Calvary 
and extending itself to earthly captivity ? Is it not the celebrated vision which 
preceded the establishment of the holy institutes of Mercy and the Trinity ? 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



259 



Some will say that these apparitions were only chimeras and mere illusions ! 
Happy are those illusions, we will reply, which produce the consolation of the 
human race ! However this may be, we will here recall these visions, braving, 
if necessary, the smiles of the incredulous. If they have preserved in their 
hearts any generous feelings, they will be compelled to allow that if these 
visions appear to them devoid of all historical truth, there is at least in the 
sublime sacrifice which is made by the man who devotes himself to slavery for 
the ransom of his brethren, a lofty poetry, a sincere love of the human race, 
an ardent desire to succor them, and an heroic disinterestedness. 

A doctor of the University of Paris, known by his virtues and his wisdom, 
had just been raised to the priesthood, and celebrated for the first time the 
holy sacrifice of the altar. In consideration of these exalted favors of the Most 
High, he redoubles his ardor, he excites his faith, and endeavors to offer to the 
Lamb without spot, with all the recollection, purity, and fervor of which he is 
capable, his heart inundated with favors and inflamed by charity. He knows 
not how to manifest to God his profound gratitude for so great a benefit ; his 
lively desire is to be able to prove to Him in some way his gratitude and his 
love. He who had said, " What you have done to one of my little children 
you have done to myself," immediately showed him a way to exhibit the fire 
of his charity. The vision begins: the priest sees an angel whose dress is 
white as snow and as brilliant as light; the angel wears on his breast a red and 
blue cross ; at his sides are two captives, the one a Christian, the other a Moor ; 
he places his hands over the heads of each. At this sight, the priest, ravished 
into ecstasy, understands that God calls him to the holy work of the redemp- 
tion of captives; but before going any further, he retires into solitude, and 
devotes himself for three years to prayer and penance, humbly begging of the 
Lord that He would make known to him His sovereign will. In the desert he 
met with a pious hermit ; the two solitaries aid each other by their prayers and 
examples. One day, when they were absorbed in pious communication by the 
side of a fountain, a stag suddenly appears to them bearing on his horns the 
mysterious cross of two colors. The priest relates to his astonished companion 
the first vision which he has had ; both redouble their prayers and penances ; 
both receive the celestial admonition for the third time. Then, unwilling any 
longer to defer the accomplishment of the Divine pleasure, they hasten to 
Rome, and ask of the Sovereign Pontiff his counsels and permission. The 
Pope, who at the same time had had a similar vision, joyfully accedes to the 
request of the two pious solitaries ; the order of the Most Holy Trinity for the 
Redemption of Captives is thus established. The priest was called John of 
Matha ; the hermit, Felix of Valois. They apply with ardent zeal to their work 
of charity ; after having dried up the tears of numbers of unhappy beings, they 
now receive in heaven the reward of their labors. The Church, wishing to cele- 
brate their memories, has placed them on her altars. 

The foundation of the order of Mercy had a similar origin. St. Peter 
Nolasco, having spent all he possessed in the redemption of captives, had sought 
in vain for new resources to continue his pious undertaking. He had set him- 
self to pray, in order to strengthen himself in his holy resolution of selling his 
own liberty, or remaining himself a_ captive in the place of some of his 
brethren. During his prayer the Blessed Virgin appeared to him ; she gave 
him to understand how pleasing the foundation of an order for the redemption 
of captives would be to herself and her Divine Son. The saint, after consulting 
the King of Aragon and St. Raymond of Penafort, proceeded to the establish- 
ment of the order. He converted into a vow, not only for himself but for all 
those who embraced the institute, the holy desire which he had previously had 
to devote himself to slavery for the ransom of his brethren. 

I repeat what I have already said: in whatever manner you judge of these 



260 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



apparitions, and if even you attempt to lay them aside altogether as mere illu- 
sions, it is not the less proved that the Catholic religion has labored with 
immense power to relieve a great misfortune, and that no one can call in question 
the utility of the holy institution in which the heroism of charity is so wonder- 
fully personified. Indeed, supposing that the founder, the dupe of illusions, 
took for a revelation from heaven what was only the inspiration of ardent zeal, 
do not the benefits lavished on the unhappy captives remain the same? W( 
hear much of illusions; but certain it is that these illusions produced a reality 
When St. Peter Armengol, wanting all resources to deliver some unfortunates, 
remained as a hostage in their place, and when the day of ransom had expired, 
resigned himself to be hung because the money had not arrived from Europe, 
the illusions certainly did not remain sterile. What reality could produce 
greater prodigies of zeal and heroism ? Long ago have the things of religion 
been condemned as illusions and madness; from the earliest times of Chris- 
tianity the mystery of the cross was treated as folly; but we do not see that 
this prevented the pretended folly from changing the face of the world. 



CHAPTER XLY. 

THE UNIVERSAL PROGRESS OP CIVILIZATION IMPEDED BY PROTESTANTISM. 

In the rapid sketch which I have just given, my intention has not been to 
write the history of the religious orders; this did not form part of my design. 
I am satisfied with having offered a series of remarks which, by showing the 
importance of these institutions, were calculated to vindicate Catholicity from 
the accusations made against her on account of the protection which she has at 
all times afforded them. How could a comparison be made between Catholi- 
city and Protestantism in their relations with the civilization of Europe, with- 
out devoting a few pages to the examination of the influence which these insti- 
tutions have exercised on civilization ? Now, if it is once shown that this influ- 
ence was salutary, Protestantism, which has persecuted and calumniated these 
religious institutions with so much hatred and rancor, remains convicted of 
having done violence to the history of our civilization, of having mistaken its 
spirit, and still more of having aimed a blow at the legitimate development of 
that civilization itself. 

These reflections naturally lead me to point out another fault which Protest- 
antism has committed. When breaking the unity of European civilization, it 
introduced discord into the bosom of that civilization, and weakened the physi- 
cal and moral action which it exercised on the rest of the world. Europe was 
apparently destined to civilize the whole world. The superiority of her intelli- 
gence, the preponderance of her strength, the superabundance of her population, 
her enterprising and valiant character, her transports of generosity and hero- 
ism, her communicating and propagating spirit, seemed to call her to diffuse 
her ideas, feelings, laws, manners, and institutions to the four quarters of the 
universe. How does it happen that she has not realized this destiny ? How 
does it happen that barbarism is still found at her gates, and that Islamism still 
maintains itself in one of the finest climates and countries of Europe ? Asia, 
with her want of moving power, weakness, despotism, and degradation of wo- 
men; Asia, with all the disgraces of humanity, lies under our eyes; and 
scarcely have we done any thing which gives reason to hope that she will 
emerge from her degraded state. Asia Minor, the coasts of Palestine, Egypt, 
and the whole of Africa, are before us in a deplorable condition — a degradation 
which excites pity, and forms a melancholy contrast with the great recollections 
of history. America, after four centuries of incessant communication with us, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



261 



is still so much behindhand that a great part of her intellectual powers and the 
resources with which nature has furnished her, remain until this day to be im- 
proved. How does it happen that Europe, full of life, rich in means of all 
kinds, overflowing with vigor and energy, has remained within the narrow 
limits in which she still is ? If we pay deep attention to this melancholy phe- 
nomenon, a phenomenon with which it is very strange that the philosophy of 
history has not occupied itself, we shall find the cause. The entire cause thereof 
is the want of unity ; her external action has been without concert, and conse- 
quently without efficacy. Men constantly vaunt the utility of association; they 
point out how necessary it is to obtain grand results, and they do not dream 
that because this principle applies to nations as well as to individuals, nations, 
like individuals, cannot accomplish great works, without conforming to this 
general law. When an assemblage of nations of the same origin, and subject 
for many ages to the same influence, have reached the development of their 
civilization under the guidance and control of a common idea, among them asso- 
ciation becomes a real necessity ; they form a family of brothers ; now, among 
brothers,, division and discord have worse results than among strangers. 

I do not pretend to say that the nations of Europe could have attained to so 
perfect a concord, that perpetual peace would have been established among 
them, and that perfect harmony would have eventually presided over all their 
undertakings with respect to the other countries of the globe ; but without 
giving way to beautiful illusions, the reality whereof is beyond the bounds of 
possibility, we may nevertheless, and without hazard of contradiction, say, that, 
in spite of particular differences between nation and nation, in spite of the 
greater or less degree of opposition between external and internal interests, 
Europe could have kept and perpetuated in her own breast a civilizing idea 
which, raising itself above all the misery and littleness of human passions, 
would have placed her in a condition to acquire a greater ascendency and a 
stronger and more useful influence over the other nations of the world. Amid 
the interminable series of wars and calamities which afflicted Europe during the 
fluctuations of the barbarous nations, this unity of thought existed ; and it was 
owing to it that order in the end came out of confusion, and that light con- 
quered darkness. In the long struggle of Christianity against Islamism, whe- 
ther in Europe, Asia, or Africa, this same unity of thought enabled Christian 
civilization to triumph, in spite of the rivalries of kings and the excesses of 
the people. While this unity existed, Europe preserved a transforming power 
which made all that it touched become European sooner or later. 

The heart is grieved at the sight of the disastrous event which broke this 
precious unity, by diverting the course of our civilization and destroying its 
fertilizing power. One can hardly observe without pain, not to say without 
anger, that the appearance of Protestantism was exactly coincident with the 
critical moment when the nations of Europe, about at length to reap the fruits 
of long ages of continued labor and unheard-of efforts, appeared to the world 
full of vigor, energy, and splendor. Putting forth gigantic strength, they dis- 
covered new worlds, and placed one hand on the East and the other on the 
West. Vasco de Grama had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, he had showed 
the way to the East Indies, and opened communication with unknown nations. 
Christopher Columbus, with the fleet of Isabella, ploughed the Western seas, 
discovered a new world, and planted the standard of Castile in unheard-of lands. 
Ferdinand Cortez, at the head of a handful of brave men, penetrated to the heart 
of the new continent, and took possession of its capital; his arms, which the 
natives had not yet seen, made him appear like a God launching his lightnings. 
Europe everywhere displayed extreme activity; a spirit of enterprise was 
developed in all hearts ; the hour had come when the nations of Europe were 
about to see open before them a new horizon of power and grandeur, the limits 



262 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



whereof were invisible to the eye. Magellan discovered the strait which united 
the east and west; and Sebastian d'Elcano, returning to the Spanish coasts, 
after having made the tour of the world, seemed to be the sublime personification 
of European civilization taking possession of the universe. At one extremity 
of Europe, the crescent still shows itself powerful and threatening, like a dark 
figure appearing in the corner of a splendid picture : but fear nothing ; its 
armies have been driven from Granada, the Christian host is encamped on the 
coast of Africa, the standard of Castile floats on the walls of Oran, and in the 
heart of Spain grows up in silence the wonderful child, who, when he has but 
just laid aside the playthings of his age, will frustrate the last efforts of the 
Moors of that country by the triumphs of Alpujarres, and shortly after will 
break the Mussulman power for ever on the waves of Lepanto. 

The development of mind kept pace with the increase of power. Erasmus 
examined all the sources of knowledge, astonished the world by his talents and 
his learning, and spread his fame in triumph from one end of Europe to the other. 
The distinguished Spaniard, Louis Yives, rivalled the savant of Rotterdam, and 
undertook nothing less than to regenerate the sciences, and give a new direction 
to the human mind. In Italy, the schools of philosophy were in a state of fer- 
mentation, and they seized with avidity the new lights brought from Constan- 
tinople. In the same country, the genius of Dante and Petrarch was continued 
in their illustrious successors; the land of Tasso resounded with his accents 
like the nightingale announcing the coming of the dawn ; while Spain, intoxi- 
cated with her triumphs, and transported with pride at the sight of her conquests, 
sang like a soldier who, after victory, reposes on a heap of trophies. What 
could resist such superiority, such brilliant display, such great power ? Europe, 
already secure against all her enemies, enjoying a prosperity which must every 
day increase, put in possession of laws and institutions better than any which 
had before been seen, and whereof the completion and perfection could not fail 
to come with the slow progress of time : Europe, we say, in a condition so 
prosperous, replete with noble hopes, was about to commence the work of civi- 
lizing the world. Even the discoveries which were every day made, indicated 
that the happy moment had arrived. Fleets transported, together with war- 
riors, apostolic missionaries, whose hands were about to scatter in the new 
countries the precious seed, whence, in the progress of time, was to grow up 
the tree under whose shadow new nations were to find shelter. Thus was the 
noble work begun, which, favored by Providence, was about to civilize America, 
Africa, and Asia. 

But the voice of the apostate who was about to cast discord into the bosoms 
of fraternal nations already resounded in the heart of G-ermany. The dispute 
begins, minds are excited, the irritation reaches its height, an appeal is made to 
arms, blood flows in torrents, and the man who had been commisioned by hell 
to scatter this cloud of calamities over the earth, contemplating before his death 
the dreadful fruit of his labors, can insult the sorrows of the human race with a 
cruel and impudent smile. Such do we figure to ourselves the genius of evil 
leaving his dark abode and his throne in the midst of horrors. He suddenly 
appears on the face of the globe, his hand sheds desolation and tears on all sides; 
he casts a look over the devastation which he has made, and then buries himself 
in eternal darkness. 

By extending itself over Europe, the schism of Luther weakened in a deplo- 
rable manner the action of Europeans on the other nations of the world ; the 
flattering hopes which had been conceived were dissipated in a moment, and 
became no more than a golden dream. Henceforth, the largest part of our 
intellectual, moral, and physical powers was condemned to be employed and 
sadly wasted in a struggle which armed brethren against brethren. The nations 
which had preserved Catholicity were compelled to concentrate all their resources, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



263 



power, and energy, in order to make head against the impious attacks which the 
new sectaries made upon them by the press or by force of arms. The nations 
among whom the contagion of the new errors had been propagated were thrown 
into a sort of giddiness ; they had no other enemies but the Catholics, and they 
considered only one enterprise worthy of their efforts — the degradation and 
destruction of the Roman See. Their thoughts no longer tended towards the 
invention of means for improving the lot of the human race ; the immense field 
which had been thrown open to noble ambition by the recent discoveries, no 
longer merited attention ; for them there was only one holy work — that of 
destroying the authority of the Roman Pontiff. 

This condition of men's minds struck with sterility the ascendency over 
nations recently discovered or conquered, which naturally belonged to Euro- 
peans. When the nations of Europe simultaneously approached new regions, 
they no longer met as brothers or generous rivals, stimulated by noble ambi- 
tion ; they were exasperated and implacable enemies, men who differed in reli- 
gion, and who fought battles against each other as bloody as those which had 
formerly been witnessed between the Christians and the Moors. The name of 
the Christian religion, which had been the symbol of peace for so many ages — 
a name which on the eve of battle was able to compel adversaries to lay aside 
their hatred, and embrace like brothers, instead of tearing each other in pieces 
like lions; a name which had served as an ensign to secure their triumph over 
Mohammedan legions : this name, now disfigured by sacrilegious hands, became 
a type of discord • and after Europe had been covered with blood and mourning, 
the scandal was transported to the nations of the New World. These simple 
and confiding nations were stricken with stupefaction on seeing the miseries, 
the spirit of division, hatred, and revenge which reigned among the same men 
upon whom they had just looked as demigods. 

From that time forward, the forces of Europe were not united in any of those 
great enterprises which had shed so much glory on previous ages. The Catho- 
lic missionary, watering the Indian or American forests with his sweat and blood, 
could reckon on the assistance of the nation to which he belonged, if that nation 
remained Catholic ; but he could not hope that all Europe, uniting in the work 
of G-od, would come to sustain the distant missions with her resources ; he knew, 
on the contrary, that a great many Europeans would calumniate and insult him, 
and use all imaginable means to prevent the seed of the gospel from taking root 
on the new soil, and increasing the power of the Popes, by adding to the renown 
of the Catholic Church. 

There was a time when the profanations of the Mussulmen in J erusalem, and 
the injuries inflicted on the pilgrims who visited the Holy Sepulchre, were suf- 
ficient to arouse the indignation of all Christian nations. They all uttered the 
cry, To arms! and in crowds they followed the monk who led them to avenge 
the outrages against religion and the pious pilgrims. After the heresy of 
Luther, all was changed : the death of a missionary sacrificed in a foreign land, 
his torments and martyrdom, sublime scenes in which the zeal and charity of 
the first ages of the Church reappeared with all their energy : all this was 
devoted to contempt and ridicule by men who called themselves Christians — 
the unworthy posterity of the heroes whose blood had flowed under the walls 
of J erusalem. 

In order to conceive in its full extent the evil caused by Protestantism hi 
this respect, let us imagine for a moment that Protestantism had not appeared; 
and in this hypothesis, let us make a few reflections on the probable course of 
events. In the first place, all the strength, genius, and resources which Spain 
employed to make head in the religious wars excited on the continent, would 
have been able to exert themselves in the New World. The same would have 
been the case with France, the Low Countries, and England. These nations, 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



although divided, have been able to furnish brilliant and glorious pages in his- 
tory ; if their action on the new countries had been united and concentrated, 
would they not have exerted a vigor and energy which would have been irre- 
sistible ? Imagine all the ports from the Baltic to the Adriatic sending their 
missionaries to the East and to the West, as did France, Spain, Portugal, and 
Italy ; imagine all the great cities of Europe as so many centres where means 
for this great object are collected j imagine all the missionaries guided by the 
same views, under the influence of the same thought, and burning with the same 
zeal for the propagation of the same faith ; wherever they meet, they meet as 
brothers, and co-operate in the common cause ; all are under the same autho- 
rity : do you not imagine that you see the Christian religion exerting herself 
on an immense scale, and everywhere gaining the most signal triumphs ? The 
vessel which bears the apostolic men to distant regions may fearlessly unfurl 
her sails ; when she discovers the flag of another country on the horizon, she 
is under no apprehension of meeting with enemies ; she is sure of finding friends 
and brothers wherever there are Europeans. 

The Catholic missions, in spite of the obstacles which have been opposed to 
them by the turbulent spirit of Protestantism, have accomplished the most 
difficult enterprises, and realized prodigies which form a brilliant page in 
modern history ; but how much nobler would have been their results, if Italy, 
Spain, Portugal, and France had been supported by the whole of Germany, the 
United Provinces, England, and other northern nations ? This association was 
natural, and must have been realized, had not the schism of Luther destroyed 
it. It may be observed, moreover, that this fatal event not only placed an 
obstacle in the way of universal association, but hindered the Catholic nations 
themselves from devoting the greatest part of their resources to the great work 
of converting and regenerating the world : they were compelled to remain con- 
tinually under arms, on account of religious wars and civil discords. At this 
epoch the religious orders were apparently called to be the arm of religion ; by 
their means religion, consolidated in Europe and satisfied with the social rege- 
neration which she had just worked, would have extended her action to the infi- 
del nations. 

When we glance over the course of events during the earliest ages of the 
Church, and compare them with those of modern times, we clearl}' see that 
some powerful cause must have interfered in modern times to oppose the pro- 
pagation of the faith. Christianity appears, and she extends herself imme- 
diately with rapidity, without any aid on the part of men, and in spite of all 
the efforts of princes, sages, priests, the passions, and of all the stratagems of 
hell. She is but of yesterday, and already she is powerful, and prevails in all 
parts of the empire; nations differing in language and manners, nations of 
various degrees of civilization, abandon the worship of their false gods, and 
embrace the religion of Jesus Christ. The barbarians themselves, as intract- 
able and indomitable as wild horses, listen to the missionaries who are sent to 
them, and bow their heads ; in the midst of conquest and victory, they are seen 
to embrace the religion of those whom they have just conquered. Christianity 
in modern times has been in possession of the exclusive empire of Europe ; and 
yet she has not been able to succeed in introducing herself again on the coasts 
of Africa and Asia, which lie under her eye. It is true, that the greatest part 
of America is become Christian ; but observe, that the nations of those countries 
have been conquered; there the conquering nations have established those 
governments which have lasted for ages ; the European nations have inundated 
the New World with their soldiers and colonies, so that a considerable portion 
of America is a kind of importation from Europe ; consequently, the religious 
transformation of that country does not resemble that which took place in the 
early ages of the Church. Turn towards the West, where European arms have 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



265 



not obtained a decided preponderance ; see what takes place there : the nations 
are still under the yoke of false religions. Christianity has not been able to 
enlighten them ; although the Catholic missions have obtained the means of 
founding a few establishments more or less considerable, the precious seed has 
not been able to take sufficient root in the soil, in order to bear the fruits which 
ardent charity hoped for, and heroic zeal labored to produce. From time to 
time, the rays of divine light have penetrated to the heart of the great empires 
of Japan and China ; at certain moments nattering hopes might be conceived ; 
but these hopes have been dissipated, these rays of light have disappeared like 
a brilliant meteor amidst the darkness of midnight. 

What is the cause of this impotence ? whence comes it that the fertilizing 
power, after having been so great in the first ages, had proved so vain in the 
last ? Let us not examine the profound secrets of Providence, or seek to inquire 
into the incomprehensible mysteries of the Divine ways ; but as far as it is given 
to a feeble spirit to learn the truth by the evidences contained in the history of 
the Church, as far as it is allowed us to carry our conjectures on the designs of the 
Most High, according to the indications which the Lord himself has been pleased 
to communicate to us, let us hazard an opinion on the facts : although dependent 
on a superior order, they yet have an ordinary course, which is regulated by 
God himself. The apostle St. Paul says that faith comes from hearing. He 
asks, how it is possible to hear, if there is no one who preaches, and how can 
there be preaching, if there is no one who sends ? Hence, we must conclude 
that missions are necessary for the conversion of nations, since G-od has not 
thought fit by constant miracles to send legions of angels from heaven to teach 
the nations who are deprived of the light of the earth. 

Having laid down this principle, I will say that what was required for the 
conversion of infidel nations was the organization of missions on a large scale. 
There were required missions which, by the abundance of their resources and 
the number of their laborers, might be in proportion to the greatness of the 
object. Observe that the distances are immense, that the nations to whom the 
divine word is to be announced are dispersed in many countries, and live under 
the influence of laws, prejudices, and climates the most opposite to the spirit of 
the G-ospel. To make head against such vast wants, and surmount such great 
difficulties, there was required a perfect inundation of missionaries ; without 
whom the result would remain doubtful, the existence of religious establishments 
very precarious, and the conversion of great nations little probable, unless Pro- 
vidence interfered by one of those prodigies which change the face of the world 
in an instant. Now Providence does not renew these prodigies every moment ; 
sometimes he does not even accord them to the most ardent supplications of the 
Saints. 

In order to form a complete idea of what took place in the latter ages, let us 
pay attention to what exists. What is wanting to infidel nations ? What is 
the incessant cry of the zealous men who devote themselves to the propagation 
of the C-ospel ? Do we not constantly hear lamentations on the small number 
of laborers, and on the scanty resources which are devoted to the subsistence of 
the missionaries ? Is not this penury of resources the cause of the associations 
now formed among the Catholics of Europe ? 

The organization of missions on a large scale would have been realized if 
Protestantism had not come to prevent it. The nations of Europe, the privi- 
leged children of Providence, had the obligation and showed a decided will to 
procure for the other nations of the world, by all the means in their power, a 
participation in the benefits of the faith. Unhappily this faith was weakened 
in Europe, it was given up to the caprices of human reason, and henceforth what 
had before been of easy execution became impossible. Providence, which had 
permitted the deplorable disaster of the schism, permits also to be deferred to a 
34 X 



266 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



more remote period the happy day when the benighted nations shall enter in 
great numbers into the fold of the Church. 

But perhaps I shall be told that the zeal of modern Catholicity is not that of 
the early ages of Christianity, and this is one of the reasons which have pre- 
vented the conversion of infidel nations. I will not make a long comparison on 
this point ; I will not say all that might be said ; I will content myself with 
making an observation which will remove the difficulty at once. Our Divine 
Saviour, in order to send His disciples to preach the Gospel, wished that they 
should abandon all they had and follow Him. The same Saviour, revealing to 
us the infallible sign of true charity, tells us that there is nothing greater than 
to give one's life for one's brethren. The Catholic missionaries of the three 
last centuries have renounced all, have abandoned their country, their families, 
all the comforts of life, all that can engage the heart of man on earth ; they 
have gone to seek the infidels amid the most imminent dangers, and they have 
sealed with their blood, in all parts of the world, their ardor for the conversion 
of their brethren, and for the salvation of souls. I believe that such missionaries 
are worthy of succeeding to those of the first ages of the Church ; all declama- 
tions and calumnies are impotent before the triumphant evidence of facts. The 
Church of the early ages would be honored, like that of our times, by a St. 
Francis Xavier and the martyrs of Japan. 

We have spoken, also, of the abundance of the missionaries. The Church 
had a wonderful fecundity for the conversion of the ancient and barbarian 
world. At her first appearance, the fiery tongues of the Cenacle and the multi- 
tude of prodigies made up for numbers, and multiplied the servants of G-od. 
Nations of different languages, listening to the same discourse, heard it at the 
same time each one in his own tongue ; but after this first impulse, by which 
the Almighty was pleased to confound the powers of hell, things followed the 
ordinary course, and a greater number of missionaries was required for a greater 
number of conversions. The great centres of faith and charity, the numerous 
churches of the East and West, furnished in abundance the apostolic men neces- 
sary for the propagation of the faith ; and this sacred army had a powerful 
reserve at hand ready to make up its deficiencies when sickness, fatigues, and 
martyrdom had thinned its ranks. Rome was the centre of this great move- 
ment; but Rome, in order to give the impulse, had no need either of fleets 
ready to transport the holy colonies to many thousand places, or of great 
treasures to support missionaries in desert regions and countries altogether 
unknown. When the missionary, prostrate at the feet of the Sovereign Pontiff, 
asked his apostolical benediction, the holy father could send him in peace with 
his pastoral staff alone 3 he knew that the G-ospel envoy was about to traverse 
Christian countries, and that even in idolatrous lands he would not be far from 
princes already converted, from bishops, priests, and faithful nations ; none of 
whom would refuse succor to him who went to sow the divine word in the 
neighboring countries. 

I leave the reflections which I have just made, on the injury done to the influ- 
ence of Europe by the schism of Protestantism, with confidence to the judgment 
of thinking men. I am deeply convinced that this influence thereby received a 
terrible blow. Without the fatal event of the sixteenth century, the condition 
of the world would now be very different from what it is. I may, no doubt, 
delude myself in some degree on this point ; but I will appeal to simple good 
sense whether it is not true, that unity of action, of principles, and of views, the 
combination of resources, and the association of agents, are not in all things the 
secret of success, and the surest guarantee for a happy result. I will then ask 
whether Protestantism did not break this unity, render this combination impos- 
sible, and this association impracticable ? Are not these facts indisputable, as 
clear as the light of day ? These fasts are recent — they are of yesterday ; what 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



267 



is their consequence ? what deduction should be drawn from them ? Let impar- 
tiality, good sense, and mere common sense, answer me, if they be only accom- 
panied by good faith. 

To every thinking man, it is evident that Europe is not what she would have 
been without the appearance of Protestantism j and certainly it is not less evi- 
dent, that the results of its civilizing influence on the world have not answered 
the promkes of the early years of the sixteenth century. Let Protestants boast 
of having given a new direction to European civilization j let them vaunt of 
having enfeebled the spiritual power of the Popes, by removing millions of souls 
from the sacred fold ; let them glory in having destroyed the religious orders in 
countries subject to their dominion — of having broken in pieces the ecclesiastical 
hierarchy, and thrown the Bible in the midst of ignorant crowds, with the 
assurance that, to understand the sacred volume, private inspiration or the judg- 
ment of natural reason was enough ; yet it is not the less certain that the unity 
of the Christian religion has disappeared among them, that they want a centre 
whence great efforts may proceed, that they are without a guide, wandering like 
a flock without a shepherd, blown about by every wind of doctrine, and unable 
to bring forth the least of those great works which Catholicity has produced, 
and still produces, in such abundance ; it is not the less certain that, by their 
eternal disputes, their calumnies, their attacks upon the dogmas and the disci- 
pline of the Church, they have compelled the latter to hold herself in an atti- 
tude of defence — to contend for three centuries, depriving her of the precious 
time and means which she would have used to complete the great projects in- 
tended by her, and already so happily begun. Is it a merit to divide men, to 
provoke discord, to excite wars, to change brother nations into enemies, to con- 
vert the great family-party of nations into an arena for rancorous strife ? Is it 
a merit to throw discredit on the missionaries who go to preach the Gospel to 
infidel nations — to place all imaginable obstacles in their way — to employ every 
means to render their zeal useless, and their charity without result ? If, indeed, 
all this be a merit, then I acknowledge that this merit belongs to Protestantism; 
but if all this be disastrous, and injurious to humanity, it is Protestantism which 
must be responsible for it. 

When Luther said that he was charged with a high mission, he spoke the 
truth, but a fearful and alarming truth, and one which he did not understand. 
The sins of nations sometimes fill up the measure of the patience of the Most 
High. The sound of human offences mounts to heaven, and calls for vengeance; 
the Eternal, in His fearful anger, sends down a look of fire upon the earth; 
then strikes the fatal hour in His secret and infinite resolves, and the son of 
perdition, who is to cover the world with mourning and desolation, appears. As 
the cataracts of heaven were formerly opened to sweep the human race from the 
face of the earth, so are the calamities which the God of vengeance holds in 
reserve for the day of His anger, poured forth from their urn and scattered over 
the world. The son of perdition raises his voice ; that moment is marked by 
the beginning of the catastrophe. The spirit of evil moves over the whole 
face of the globe, bearing on his sable pinions the echo of that ominous voice. 
An incomprehensible giddiness takes possession of men's heads; the nations 
have eyes, and see not ; they have ears, and hear not ; in their delirium, the 
most frightful precipices appear to them smooth, peaceful, and flowery paths ; 
they call good evil, and evil good ; they drink with feverish eagerness of the 
poisoned cup ; forgetfulness of all the past, ingratitude for all benefits, seize all 
minds; the work of the genius of evil is consummated; the prince of the rebel- 
lious spirits may again bury himself in his empire of darkness ; and the human 
race has learned, by a terrible lesson, that the indignation of the Most High is 
not to be provoked with impunity. 



268 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

THE JESUITS. 

As I am treating of religious institutions, I must not pass over in silence 
that celebrated order, which, from the first years of its existence, assumed the 
stature of a colossus, and employed all a giant's strength; that order which 
perished without having felt decay ; which did not follow the common course 
of others, either in its foundation, in its development, or even in its fall ; that 
order of which it is truly and correctly said, that it had neither infancy nor old 
age. It is clear that I speak of the society of Jesus, the Jesuits. The name 
alone will be enough to alarm a certain class of readers; and, therefore, in 
order to tranquillize them, I will say that I do not here undertake to write an 
apology for the Jesuits; this task does not belong to the character of my work; 
moreover, others have undertaken it, and it is not necessary for me to repeat 
what is well known. But it is impossible to call to mind the religious institu- 
tions, the religious, political, and literary history of Europe, during the last 
three centuries, without meeting the Jesuits at every step : we cannot travel in 
the most distant countries, traverse unknown seas, visit the most remote lands, 
or penetrate the most frightful deserts, without finding everywhere under our 
feet some memorials of the Jesuits. On the other hand, we cannot look at our 
libraries without immediately remarking the writings of some Jesuits. Since 
this is the case, even those among our readers who have the greatest horror of 
them, ought to pardon us for fixing our attention for a moment on this institute 
which has filled the world with its name. Even if we were to attach no im- 
portance to their modern revival, and to regard their present existence and their 
probable future as unworthy of examination, it would still be altogether inex- 
cusable not to speak of them, at least as a historical fact. To pass them over 
in silence, would be to imitate those ignorant and heartless travellers, who, with 
stupid indifference, tread under foot the most interesting ruins and the most 
valuable remains. 

When we study the history of the Jesuits, this very extraordinary circum- 
stance is apparent : they have existed only for a few years, if compared with the 
duration of other religious bodies, and yet there is no religious order which has 
been the object of such keen animosity. From their origin, they have had 
numerous enemies ; never have they been free from them, either in their pros- 
perity and greatness, or in their fall, or even after it ; never has their persecu- 
tion ceased ; we should rather say, never has the animosity with which they 
have been pursued ceased. Since their reappearance, men have constantly 
fixed their eyes upon them ; they tremble lest they should resume their ancient 
power ; the splendor which is reflected on them by the recollections of their 
brilliant history renders them visible everywhere, and augments the fears of 
their enemies. How many men among us are more alarmed at the foundation 
of a Jesuits' college than at an irruption of Cossacks ! There is, therefore, 
something very singular and extraordinary in this institute, since it excites the 
public attention in so high a degree, and its mere name disconcerts its enemies. 
Men do not despise the Jesuits, but they fear them ; sometimes they attempt 
to throw ridicule on them ; but when that weapon is employed against them, 
it is felt that he who wields it is not sufficiently calm to use it with success. In 
vain does he attempt to affect contempt ; through the affectation every one can 
perceive disquietude and anxiety. It is immediately seen that he who attacks 
does not believe himself opposed to insignificant adversaries. His bile is ex- 
cited, his sallies become checked, his words, steeped in a fearful bitterness, fall 
from his mouth like drops from a poisoned cup ; it is clear that he takes the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



269 



affair to heart, and does not look upon it as a mere joke. We fancy we hear 
him say to himself, "Every thing affecting the Jesuits is extremely grave; 
there is no playing with these men — no regard, no indulgence, no moderation 
of any kind j it is necessary always to treat them with rigor, harshness, and 
detestation ; with them, the least negligence may become fatal." 

Unless I am much deceived, this is the best demonstration that can be given 
of the eminent merit of the Jesuits. It must be the same with classes and cor- 
porations as with individuals — very extraordinary merit necessarily excites nu- 
merous enemies, for the simple reason that such merit is always envied, and 
very often dreaded. In order to know the real cause of this implacable hatred 
against them, it is enough to consider who are their principal enemies. We 
know that Protestants and infidels figure there in the first rank ; in the second, 
we remark the men who, with more or less clearness and resolution, show them- 
selves but little attached to the authority of the Roman Church. Both, in their 
hatred against the Jesuits, are guided by a very rare instinct, for truly they 
have never met with a more redoubtable adversary. This reflection is worthy 
of the attention of sincere Catholics, who, for one cause or another, entertain 
unjust prejudices. When we have to form a judgment on the merit and con- 
duct of a man, it is very often a sure means of deciding between contrary 
opinions to inquire who are his enemies. 

When we fix our attention on the institute of the Jesuits, on the time of its 
foundation, on the rapidity and greatness of its progress, we find the important 
truth which I have before pointed out more and more confirmed, viz., that the 
Catholic Church, with wonderful fruitfulness, always furnishes an idea worthy 
of her to meet all the necessities which arise. Protestantism opposed the Ca- 
tholic doctrines with the pomp and parade of knowledge and learning; the eclat 
of human literature, the knowledge of languages, the taste for the models of 
antiquity, were all employed against religion with a constancy and ardour worthy 
of a better cause. Incredible efforts were made to destroy the pontifical authority j 
when they could not destroy it, they attempted at least to weaken and discredit 
it. The evil spread with fearful rapidity ; the mortal poison already circulated 
in the veins of a considerable portion of the European nations : the contagion 
began to be propagated even in countries which had remained faithful to the truth. 
To complete the misfortune, schism and heresy, traversing the seas, corrupted 
the faith of the simple neophytes of the New World. What was to be done in 
such a crisis? Could such great evils be remedied by ordinary means? Was 
it possible to make head against such great and imminent perils by employing 
common arms ? Was it not proper to make some on purpose for such a struggle, 
to temper the cuirass and shield, to fit them for this new kind of warfare, in 
order that the cause of truth might not appear in the new arena under fatal 
disadvantages? Who can doubt that the appearance of the Jesuits was the 
answer to these questions, that their institute was the solution of the problem ? 

The spirit of the coming ages was essentially one of scientific and literary 
progress. The Jesuits were aware of this truth; they perfectly understood it. 

It was necessary to advance with rapidity and never to remain behind : this 
the new institute does ; it takes the lead in all sciences ; it allows none to anti- 
cipate it. Men study the oriental languages ; they produce great works on the 
Bible j they search the books of the ancient Fathers, the monuments of tradi- 
tion and of ecclesiastical decisions : in the midst of this great activity, the Jesuits 
are at their posts ; many supereminent works issue from their colleges. The 
taste for dogmatical controversy is spread over all Europe : many schools preserve 
and love the scholastic discussions : immortal works of controversy come from 
the hands of the Jesuits, at the same time that they yield to none in skill and 
penetration in the schools. The mathematics, astronomy, all the natural 
sciences, make great progress ; learned societies are formed in the capitals of 



270 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Europe to cultivate and encourage them : in these societies the Jesuits figure in 
the first rank. The spirit of time is naturally dissolvent : the institute of the 
Jesuits is interiorly armed against dissolution ; in spite of the rapidity of its 
course, it advances in a compact order, like the mass of a powerful army. The 
errors, the eternal disputes, the multitude of the new opinions, even the progress 
of the sciences, by exciting men's minds, give a fatal inconstancy to the human 
intellect — an impetuous whirlwind, agitating and stirring up all things, carries 
them away. The order of the Jesuits appears in the midst of this whirlwind, 
but it partakes neither of its inconstancy nor of its variability ; it pursues its 
career without losing itself ; and while only irregularity and vacillation are seen 
among its adversaries, it advances with a sure step, tending towards its object, 
like a planet which performs its orbit according to fixed laws. The authority 
of the Pope, assailed with animosity by Protestants, was indirectly attacked by 
others with stratagem and dissimulation ; the Jesuits showed themselves faith- 
fully attached to that authority; they defend it wherever it is threatened; like 
vigilant sentinels, they constantly watch over the preservation of Catholic unity. 
Their knowledge, influence, and riches never affect their profound submission to 
the authority of the Popes — a submission which was ever their distinctive cha- 
racteristic. In consequence of the discovery of the new countries in the east 
and west, a taste for travelling, for observing distant countries, for the know- 
ledge of the language, manners, and customs of the recently discovered nations, 
was developed in Europe. The Jesuits, spread over the face of the globe, while 
preaching the Gospel to the nations, do not forget the study of the thousand 
things which may interest cultivated Europe ; and at their return from their 
gigantic expeditions, they are seen adding their valuable treasures to the common 
fund of modern science. 

How, then, can we be surprised that Protestants have been so violent against 
an institute in which they found so terrible an enemy ; and, on the other hand 7 
was there any thing more natural than to see all the other enemies of religion, 
enemies some of whom were wholly unmasked and some partially disguised, 
make common cause with Protestants on this point ? The Jesuits were a wall 
of brass against the assaults upon the Catholic faith ; it was resolved to under- 
mine and overturn this rampart; which in the end was accomplished. Very 
few years had elapsed since the suppression of the Jesuits, and already the 
memory of the great crimes which were imputed to them was effaced by the 
ravages of an unexampled revolution. Men of good faith, whose excessive con- 
fidence had believed perfidious calumnies, could convince themselves that the 
riches, knowledge, influence, and the pretended ambition of the Jesuits, would 
never have been as fatal as the triumph of their enemies ; these religious men 
would never have upset a throne or cut off the head of a king on the scaffold. 

M. Gluizot, in glancing at European civilization, necessarily encountered the 
Jesuits; and it must be acknowledged that he has not done them the justice to 
which they are entitled. After having lamented the inconsistency of the Pro- 
testant Reformation, and the narrow spirit which guided it, after having confessed 
that Catholics knew very well what they did and whac they wished, and that they 
acted up to the principles of their conduct and avowed all their consequences, 
M. Gruizot declares that there never was a more consistent government than that 
of Rome, and that the court of Rome, always having a fixed idea, has known 
how to pursue a consistent and regular line of conduct; he extols the strength 
which results from a full knowledge of what one does and what one wishes; 
he shows the advantage of a settled design, and of the complete and absolute 
adoption of a principle and system ; that is to say, he makes a brilliant pane- 
gyric on, and a powerful apology for, the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, M. 
Guizot finds the Jesuits in his way, and unworthy as it is of such a mind as his, 
which, in order to require just renown, has no need of burning incense before 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



271 



vulgar prejudices or mean passions, he attempts, in passing, to throw a reproach 
upon them. "Every one knows," says M. Guizot, "that the principal power 
instituted to contend against the religious revolution, was the order of the Jesuits. 
Throw a glance over their history ; they have failed everywhere ; wherever they 
have interfered to any extent, they have brought misfortune to the cause in which 
they have engaged. In England they have destroyed kings, in Spain nations." 
M. Guizot had just told us of the superiority which is obtained over an adver- 
sary by regular and consistent conduct, by the complete and absolute adoption 
of a system, and by a fixed idea; as a proof of all this he showed us the Jesuits, 
he exhibited to us in them the expression of the system of the Church; and 
behold, without any explanation, if not without a motive, the writer suddenly 
changes his course; the advantages of the system which he has just praised 
disappear from his eyes ; for those who follow this system, that is the Jesuits 
themselves, fail everywhere, and everywhere bring misfortunes on the cause 
which they embrace. How can such assertions be reconciled? The credit, 
influence, and sagacity of the Jesuits have passed into a proverb. The reproach 
against them was, of having extended their views too far, of having conceived 
ambitious plans, and obtained by their skill a decided ascendency in all the 
places where they succeeded in gaining entrance ; Protestants themselves have 
openly confessed that the J esuits were their most redoubtable adversaries ; it was 
always thought that the foundation of the order had an immense result, and now 
we learn from M. Guizot, that the Jesuits have everywhere failed; that their 
support, far from being a great succour, always brought fatality and misfortune 
to the cause of which they declared themselves the advocates. If they were 
such fatal servants, why were their services sought with so much eagerness ? 
If they always conducted affairs so ill, why have the most important ones in the 
end fallen into their hands ? Adversaries so foolish or so unfortunate certainly 
ought not to have excited in the enemies' camp so much clamor as was raised at 
their approach. 

" In England the Jesuits have destroyed kings, in Spain nations." Nothing 
is easier than these bold strokes of the pen ; the whole of a great history is 
traced in a single line, and an infinity of facts, grouped and confounded, are 
made to pass under the eye of the reader with the rapidity of lightning ; the 
eye has not even time to look at them, still less to analyze them as would be 
necessary. M. Guizot should have devoted some sentences to prove his assertion; 
he should have stated the facts and pointed out the reasons on which he builds, 
when he affirms that the influence of the Jesuits has had so fatal an effect. 
With respect to the kings of England here so boldly sacrificed, I cannot enter 
into an examination of the religious and political revolutions which agitated and 
desolated the three kingdoms for two centuries after the schism of Henry VIII. 
These revolutions, in their immense circle, have presented very different phases; 
disfigured and perverted by the Protestants, who have success in their favor, 
that decisive, if not convincing argument, they have made some men of little 
reflection believe that the disasters of England were in great part due to the 
imprudence of the Catholics, and, as an indispensable corollary, to the pretended 
intrigues of the Jesuits. In spite of this, the Catholic movement which Eng- 
land has witnessed for half a century, and the great works which every day 
carry on the restoration of Catholicity, will at last disperse the calumnies by 
which our faith has been stigmatized. BeforeJong, the history of the last three 
centuries will be restored as it ought, and the truth will appear in its proper 
light. This observation relieves me from the necessity of entering into details 
on the subject of the first assertion of M. Guizot; but I must not leave without 
reply what he so gratuitously affirms on the subject of Spain. 

" The Jesuits have destroyed nations in Spain," says M. Guizot; I wish that 
the publicist had explained to us to what great disaster he alluded. To what 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



period does he refer ? I have examined our history, and I do not find this de- 
struction which was caused by the Jesuits; I cannot imagine whereon the his- 
torian fixed his eyes when he pronounced these words. Nevertheless, the 
antithesis between Spain and England, between nations and kings, leads us to 
suspect that M. Guizot alluded to the shipwreck of political liberty ; we are not 
aware that there is any other better-founded or more legitimate interpretation. 
But then a new difficulty presents itself : how can we believe that a man so 
versed in the knowledge of history, composing a course of lectures which is par- 
ticularly devoted to the general history of European civilization, should fall into 
a palpable error, — should commit an unpardonable anachronism ? Indeed, what- 
ever may be the judgments of publicists on the causes which have produced the 
loss of liberty in Spain, and on the important events of the days of the Catholic 
sovereigns, of Philippe le Beau, of J eanne-la-Folle, and the regency of Cisneros, 
all are unanimous in saying that the war of the Commons was the critical mo- 
ment, decisive of the liberty of Spain ; all are agreed that the two parties played 
their last stake at that time, and that the battle of Villalar and the punishment 
of Padilla, by confirming and increasing the royal power, destroyed the last 
hopes of the partisans of the ancient liberties. Well, the battle of Villalar was 
fought in 1521 ; at that time the Jesuits did not exist, and St. Ignatius, their 
founder, was still a brilliant knight, battling like a hero under the walls of 
Pampeluna. To this there is no reply; all philosophy and eloquence are unable 
to efface these dates. 

During the sixteenth century, the Cortes met more or less often, and with 
more or less influence, above all in the kingdom of Aragon ; but it is as clear 
as daylight that the royal power had every thing under its domination, that 
nothing could resist it, and the unfortunate attempt of the Aragonese, at the 
time of the affair of Don Antonio Perez, sufficiently shows that there existed 
then no remains of ancient liberty which could oppose the will of kings. Some 
years after the war of the Commons, Charles V. gave the coup de grace to the 
Cortes of Castile, by excluding from it the clergy and the nobles, to leave only 
the Estamento de Procuradores, a feeble rampart against the exigencies, against 
the all-powerful attempts of a monarch on whose dominions the sun never set. 
This exclusion took place in 1538, at the time when St. Ignatius was still occu- 
pied with the foundation of his order ; the J esuits, therefore, could have had no 
influence therein. 

Still more, the Jesuits, after their establishment in Spain, never employed 
their influence against the liberty of the people. From their pulpits they did 
not teach doctrines favorable to despotism ; if they reminded the people of their 
duties, they also reminded kings of theirs; if they wished the rights of monarchs 
to be respected, they would not allow those of the people to be trodden under 
foot. To prove the truth of this, I appeal to the testimony of those who have 
read the writings of the Jesuits of that time on questions of public law. " The 
Jesuits," says M. Guizot, " were called to contend against the general course 
of events, against the development of modern civilization, against the liberty of 
the human mind." If the general course of events is nothing but the course 
of Protestantism, if the development of Protestantism is the development of 
modern civilization, if the liberty of the human mind consists only in the fatal 
pride, in the mad independence which the pretended reformers communicated 
to it, then nothing is more true than the assertion of the publicist ; but if the 
preservation of Catholicity is a fact of any weight in the history of Europe, if 
her influence during the last three centuries has amounted to any thing, if the 
reigns of Charles V., Philip II., Louis XIV., do not deserve to be effaced from 
modern history, and if regard ought to be had to that immense counterpoise to 
which was owing the equilibrium of the two religions ; in fine, if the faith of 
Descartes, Malebranche, Bossuet, and Fenelon, can make a dignified appearance 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 273 

in the picture of modern civilization, it is impossible to understand how the 
Jesuits, when intrepidly defending Catholicity, could be struggling against the 
general course of events, against the development of modern civilization, and 
against the freedom of human thought. 

After having made this first false step, M. Guizot continues to slip in a de- 
plorable manner. I particularly call the attention of my readers to the follow- 
ing evident contradictions : " With the Jesuits, there is no eclat, no grandeur. 
They have performed no brilliant exploits/' The publicist entirely forgets what 
he has just advanced, or rather he directly retracts it, when he adds, a few lines 
further, " and yet, nothing is more certain than that they have had grandeur ; 
a grand idea belongs to their names, to their influence, and to their history. It 
is because they knew what they did, and what they wished ; it is because they 
had a clear and full knowledge of the principles on which they acted, and of the 
end towards which they tended ; that is to say, because they have had grandeur 
of thought and of will." Is genius in its vastest enterprises, in the realization 
of its most gigantic projects, any thing more than a grand idea and a grand 
intention? The mind conceives, the will executes; this fashions the model, 
that makes the application j if there be grandeur in the model and in the appli- 
cation, how can the whole work fail to be grand ? 

Pursuing the task of lowering the Jesuits, M. Guizot makes a parallel be- 
tween them and the Protestants j he confounds ideas in such a way, and so far 
forgets the nature of things, that one would hardly believe it, if the words them- 
selves did not prove it beyond a doubt. Forgetting that it is necessary for the 
terms of a comparison not to be of a totally different kind, which renders all 
comparison impossible, M. Guizot compares a religious institute with whole 
nations ; he goes so far as to reproach the Jesuits with not having raised the 
people en masse, and with not having changed the form and condition of states. 
Here is the passage : " They have acted in subterraneous, dark, and inferior 
ways ; in ways which were not at all apt to strike the imagination, or to con- 
ciliate for them that public interest which attaches itself to great things, what- 
ever may be their principle and end. The party against which they contended, 
on the contrary, not only conquered, but conquered with eclat; it has done 
great things and by great means ; it has aroused nations ; it has filled Europe 
with great men; it has changed the form and the lot of nations in the face of 
day. In a word, all has been against the Jesuits, both fortune and appear- 
ances." Without intending to offend M. Guizot, let us avow, that for the honor 
of his logic, one would desire to efface from his writings such phrases as we have 
just read. What! ought the Jesuits to have put the nations in motion, made 
them arise en masse, and changed the form and condition of states ? Would 
they not have been extraordinary religious men, if they had been allowed to do 
such things ? It was said of the J esuits that they had unbounded ambition, 
and that they attempted to rule the world ; and now they are compared with 
their adversaries in order to throw it in their faces that the latter have over- 
turned the world; a distinguished merit, which must have been a disgrace to 
the Jesuits themselves. Indeed, the Jesuits have never attempted to imitate 
their adversaries on this point ; with respect to the spirit of confusion and per- 
turbation, they joyfully yield the palm to those to whom it rightly belongs. 

As far as great men are concerned, if the question be with respect to the 
greatness of the enterprises which are becoming in a minister of the God of 
peace, then have the Jesuits had this kind of grandeur in an eminent degree. 
Whether it be in the most arduous affairs, or in the vastest projects in science 
and literature, whether it be in the most distant missions, or in the most 
redoubtable perils, the Jesuits have never remained behind ; on the contrary, 
they have been seen to display a spirit so bold and enterprising, that they have 
thereby obtained the most distinguished renown. If 'the great men of whom 



274 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



M. Guizot speaks are restless tribunes, who, putting themselves at the h^ad of 
an ungovernable people, violated the public peace, if they are the Protestant 
warriors whose names have shone in the wars of Germany, France, and Eng- 
land, the comparison is foolish, and has no meaning ; for priests and warriors, 
religious and tribunes, are so distinct, so different in actions and character, that 
to compare them is impossible. 

Justice required that in such a parallel, where the Jesuits are taken as one 
of the terms of the comparison, Protestants should not be placed on the other, 
unless by them the reformed ministers are meant. Even in this later case the 
comparison would not have been absolutely exact, since, in the midst of the 
great differences between the two religions, the Jesuits are not found alone in 
defending Catholicity. The Church, during the last three centuries, has had 
great prelates, holy priests, eminent savants, and writers of the first order, who 
did not belong to the company of Jesus ; the Jesuits were reckoned among the 
principal champions, but they were not the only ones. Had it been wished 
fairly to compare Protestantism with Catholicity, it would have been requisite 
to oppose Protestant to Catholic nations, to compare priests with priests, savants 
with savants, politicians with politicians, warriors with warriors ; to do other- 
wise is monstrously to confound names and things, and to reckon too much on 
the limited understandings and excessive simplicity of hearers and readers. 
It is certain that if the method we have pointed out were adopted, Protestant- 
ism would not appear so brilliant and superior as the publicist has exhibited it 
to us. Catholics, as M. Guizot well knows, do not yield to Protestants in 
letters, in war, or in political ability. History is there ; let it be consulted. 



CHAPTER XLVIL 

THE FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. — THEIR PRESENT NECESSITY. 

When, after having fixed our eyes on the vast and interesting picture which 
religious communities present to us, after having called to mind their origin, 
their varied forms, their vicissitudes of poverty and riches, of depression and 
prosperity, of coldness and of fervor, of relaxation and strict reform, we see 
them still subsist and arise anew on all sides, in spite of the efforts of their 
enemies, we naturally ask what will be their future ? their past is full of glory j 
what influence have they not exerted in society, under a thousand different 
aspects, and in the thousand phases of society itself? Yet what spectacle do 
they show us in modem times? On one hand they have been weakened, like 
an old wall which we see ruined by the effect of time ; on the other we have 
seen them suddenly disappear, like weak trees overthrown by the whirlwind. 
Moreover, they seemed to be condemned by the spirit of the age without appeal. 
Matter having become supreme, extended its empire on all sides, scarcely 
allowing the mind a moment for reflection and meditation ; industry and com- 
merce, carrying their turmoil to the remotest parts of the earth, confirmed the 
judgment of an irreligious philosophy against a class of men devoted to prayer, 
silence, and solitude. Nevertheless, facts everyday belie their conjectures; the 
hearts of Christiaus still preserve the most flattering hopes, and these hopes are 
strengthened and animated more and more. The hand of God, who carries out 
His high designs and laughs at the vain thoughts of man, shows it more and 
more wonderful. Philosophy sees a wide field for meditation open before it; it 
anticipates the probable future of religious communities; it may make conjec- 
tures on the influence which is reserved for them in society for the future. 

We have already seen what is the real origin of religious institutions ; we 
have found that origin in the spirit of the Catholic religion, and history has told 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



275 



us that they have arisen wherever she is established. They have varied in form, 
in rule, in object, but the fact has been always the same. Thence we have 
inferred that wherever the Catholic faith shall be maintained, religious institu- 
tions will appear anew under some form or other. This prognostic may be 
made with complete certainty ; we do not fear that time will belie it. We live 
in an age steeped in voluptuous materialism ; interests which are called positive, 
or, in plainer terms, gold and pleasure, have acquired such an ascendency that 
we might apparently fear to see some societies lamentably retrograde towards 
the manners of paganism, towards that period of disgrace when religion might 
be summed up in the deification of matter. But in the midst of this afflicting 
picture, when the mind, full of anguish, feels itself on the point of swooning 
away, the observer sees that the soul of man is not yet dead, and that lofty 
ideas, noble and dignified feelings, are not entirely banished from the earth. 
The human mind feels itself too great to be limited to wretched objects j it 
comprehends that it is given it to rise higher than an air-balloon. 

Observe what happens with respect to industrial progress. Those steam- 
vessels which leave our ports with the rapidity of an arrow to traverse the 
immensity of ocean, those burning vehicles which skim along our plains, and 
penetrate into the heart of mountains, realizing under our eyes what would 
have seemed a dream to our fathers ; those other machines which give move- 
ment to gigantic workshops, and as if by magic set in motion innumerable 
instruments, and elaborate with the most wonderful precision the most delicate 
productions : all this is great and wonderful. But however great, however 
wonderful it may be, it no longer astonishes ; these wonders no longer capti- 
vate our attention in a more lively manner than the generality of the objects 
which surround us. Man feels that he is still greater than these machines and 
masterpieces of art ; his heart is an abyss which nothing can fill j give him the 
whole world, and the void will be the same. The depth is immeasurable ; the 
soul, created in the image and likeness of God, cannot be satisfied without the 
possession of Him. 

The Catholic religion constantly revives these lofty thoughts, and points out 
this immense void. In barbarous times she placed herself among rude and 
ignorant nations to lead them to civilization ; she now remains among civilized 
nations to provide against the dissolution which threatens them. She disregards 
the coldness and neglect with which indifference and ingratitude reply to her ; 
she cries out without ceasing, addresses her warnings to the faithful with inde- 
fatigable constancy, makes her voice resound in the ears of the incredulous, and 
remains intact and immovable in the midst of the agitation and instability of 
human things. Thus do those wonderful temples which have been left to us 
by the remotest antiquity, remain entire amid the action of time, of revolu- 
tions, and of convulsions ) around them arise and disappear the habitations of 
men, the palaces of the great and the cottages of the poor, but the time-stained 
edifice stands like a solemn and mysterious object in the midst of the smiling 
fields and showy structures which surround it ; its vast cupola annihilates all 
that is near • its summit boldly rises towards the heavens. 

The labors of religion do not remain without fruit; penetrating minds 
acknowledge her truths ) even those who refuse their submission to the faith 
confess the beauty, utility, and necessity of this divine religion ; they regard it 
as an historical fact of the highest importance, and agree that the good order 
and prosperity of families and states depend upon it. But Grod, who watches 
over the safety of the church, is not content with these avowals of philosophy; 
torrents of all-powerful grace descend from on high, and the Divine Spirit is 
diffused and renewed on the face of the earth. Even from the whirlwind of the 
world, corrupt and indifferent as it is, privileged men frequently come forth, 
whose foreheads have been touched with the flame of inspiration, and whose 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



hearti are on fire with heavenly love. In retreat, in solitude, in meditation on 

the eternal truths, they have acquired that disposition of mind which is neces- 
sary to perform arduous tasks j in spite of raillery and ingratitude, they devote 
themselves to console the unfortunate, to educate the young, and to convert 
idolatrous nations. The Catholic religion will last till the end of time, and so 
long will there be these privileged men separated by God from the rest, to be 
called to extraordinary sanctity, or to console their brethren in their misfor- 
tunes. Now these men will seek each other, will unite to pray, will associate 
to aid each other in their enterprise, will ask for the apostolical benediction of 
the Vicar of Jesus Christ, and will found religious institutions. Whether they 
be old orders only modified, or entirely new ones ; whatever be their forms, 
rules of life or dress, all this is of little importance ; the origin, the nature, 
and the object will be the same. It is vain for men to oppose the miracles of 
grace. 

Even the present condition of society will require the existence of religious 
institutions. When the organization of modern nations shall have been more 
profoundly examined, when time by its bitter lessons and terrible experience 
shall have thrown more light on the real state of things, it will be evident that 
errors greater than men have imagined, have been committed in the social as 
well as in the political order. Sad experience has corrected ideas to a great 
extent, but this does not suffice. 

It is evident that present societies want the necessary means to supply the 
necessities which press upon them. Property is divided and subdivided more 
and more ; every day it becomes more feeble and inconstant, industry multiplies 
productions in an alarming manner, commerce extends itself indefinitely; that 
is to say, society, approaching the term of pretended social perfection, is on the 
point of attaining the wishes of that materialistic school, in whose eyes men are 
only machines, and which has not imagined that society can undertake any 
grander or more useful object than the immense development of material 
interests. Misery has increased in proportion to the augmentation of produc- 
tion ; to the eyes of all provident men it is as clear as the light of day that 
things are pursuing a wrong course, and that if a remedy cannot be applied in 
time, the denouement will be fatal; the vessel which we see advancing so 
rapidly, with all her sails set and a favorable wind, is about to strike upon a 
rock. The accumulation of riches, brought about by the rapidity of the indus- 
trial and commercial movement, tends towards the establishment of a system 
which would devote the sweat and the lives of all to the profit of the few ; but 
this tendency finds its counterpoise in levelling ideas which agitate very many 
heads, and which, moulded into different theories, more or less openly attack 
property, the present organization of labor, and the distribution of productions. 
Immense multitudes, overwhelmed with misery and in want of moral instruc- 
tion and education, are disposed to promote the realization of projects not less 
criminal than foolish, whenever an unhappy concurrence of circumstances shall 
render the attempt possible. It is superfluous to support the melancholy asser- 
tions which we have just made with facts; the experience of every day confirms 
them but too much. 

Such being the case, may we be allowed to inquire of society, what means 
there are, either of improving the state of the masses, or of guiding and restrain- 
ing them ? It is clear that, for the first of these, neither the inspirations of 
private interests, nor the instinct of preservation which animates the favored 
classes, are sufficient. These classes, properly speaking, as they exist, have not 
the character which constitutes a class : they are only a collection of families 
just emerged from poverty and obscurity, and who rapidly advance towards 
the abyss whence they came, leaving their place to other families who will run 
the same course. We find nothing fixed or stable about them. They live 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



277 



from day to day, without thinking of the morrow : far different from the old 
nobility, whose origin was lost in the obscurity of the remotest antiquity, and 
whose strength and organization promised long centuries of existence. These 
men could and did follow a system; for what existed to-day was sure of existence 
to-morrow ; now all is changeable and inconstant. Individuals, like families, 
labor to accumulate, to lay by riches, not in order to sustain for ages the power 
and splendor of an illustrious house, but to enjoy to-day what has been but just 
acquired. The presentiment of the short duration which things must have, 
augments still more the giddiness and frenzy of dissipation. The times are 
past when opulent families were desirous of founding some enduring establish- 
ment to evince their generosity and perpetuate the splendor of their names : 
hospitals, and other houses of beneficence, do not come from the coffers of the 
bankers, as they did from those of the old castles. We must acknowledge, 
however painful may be the avowal, that the opulent classes of society do not 
fulfil the duty which belongs to them : the poor should respect the property of 
the rich; but the rich should, in their turn, respect the condition of the poor: 
such is the will of G-od. 

It follows from what I have stated, that the resource of beneficence is want- 
ing in the social organization j and observe well, that administration does not 
constitute society. Administration supposes society to be already existing and 
entirely formed ; when we expect the salvation of society from means purely 
administrative, we attempt a thing which is out of the laws of nature. In vain 
shall we imagine new expedients j in vain shall we form ingenious plans, and 
make new experiments; society has need of a more powerful agent. It is 
essential that the world should submit to the law of love or that of force, to 
charity or servitude. All the nations who have not had charity, have found no 
other means of solving the social problem, than that of subjecting the greatest 
number to slavery. Heason teaches, and history proves, that neither public 
order, property, nor even society itself, can exist, unless one of these is chosen; 
modern society will not be exempted from the general law; the symptoms which 
now present themselves to our eyes clearly indicate the events whereof the 
generations which are to succeed us will be the witnesses. 

Happily, the fire of charity still burns on the earth ; but the indifference and 
prejudices of the wicked compel it to remain under the embers. They are 
alarmed at the least spark of it which escapes, as if it would enkindle a fatal 
conflagration. If the development of institutions which are exclusively based 
upon the principle of charity was favored, their salutary results and the supe- 
riority which they possess over all that are founded on other principles would 
soon be evident. It is impossible to supply the wants which I have just pointed 
out, without organizing, on a vast scale, systems of beneficence directed by 
charity : now this organization cannot be made without religious institutions. 
It cannot be denied that Christians who live in the world may form associations 
by which this object will be accomplished more or less completely; but there 
are always a multitude of cases which absolutely require the co-operation of men 
exclusively devoted to them. It is necessary, moreover, to have a nucleus to 
serve as the centre of all efforts, which presents, by its own nature, a guarantee 
for preservation, and which provides against the interruptions and oscillations 
which are inevitable in a large concourse of agents, who are not bound together 
by any tie strong enough to preserve them from differences, from separation, 
and even from intestine contests. 

This vast system which we speak of ought to extend not only to beneficence, 
but also to the education and instruction of the many. The establishment of 
schools will remain sterile, if not mischievous, as long as they are not founded 
upon religion ; and they will be thus founded only in appearance and name, 
while the direction of these schools does not belong to the ministers of religion. 

Y 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



The secular clergy may fulfil a portion of this charge, but they are not enough 
for the task ; on the one hand, their limited number, and on the other, their 
other duties, prevent their acting on a scale sufficiently large to supply all the 
necessities of the times: hence it follows, that the propagation of religious insti- 
tutions in our days has a social importance, which cannot be mistaken without 
shutting one's eyes to the evidence of facts. 

If you reflect on the organization of European nations, you will understand 
that their real advance has been prevented by some fatal cause. Indeed, their 
situation is so singular, that it cannot be the result of the principles whence these 
nations have drawn their origin, and which have given them their increase. It 
is evident that the countless multitude which one sees in society, making use of 
all its faculties with complete liberty, could not, in the state in which it now is, 
have been comprised in the primitive design — in the plan of true civilization. 
When we create forces, we should know what we shall do with them, by what 
means we shall move and direct them ; without this we only prepare violent 
shocks, endless agitation, disorder, and destruction. The mechanician who can- 
not introduce a force into his machine without breaking the harmony of the other 
movers, takes care not to introduce it ; and he sacrifices acceleration of move- 
ment and the greatest strength of impulse to the fundamental necessity of the 
preservation of the machine and the order and utility of its functions. In the 
present state of society, we observe that power which is not in harmony with 
the others; and the men who are charged with directing the machine pay but 
little attention to gaining the required harmony. Nothing acts upon the mass 
of the people but the ardent desire of ameliorating their condition, of placing 
themselves in comfort, and of obtaining the enjoyments of which the rich are 
in possession ; nothing to induce them to be resigned to the rigors of their lot ; 
nothing to console them in their misfortunes ; nothing to render the present evils 
more supportable by the hopes of a better future; nothing to inspire them with 
respect for property, obedience to the laws, submission to government ; nothing 
to produce in their minds gratitude towards the powerful classes ; nothing to 
temper their hatreds, diminish their envy, and mollify their anger; nothing to 
raise their ideas above earthly things, their desires from sensual pleasures; 
nothing to form in their hearts a solid morality capable of restraining them from 
vice and crime. 

If we pay attention, we shall see that the men of this age have only three 
means of restraining the masses, and they regard these as enough; but reason 
and experience show that these expedients are not only not efficacious, but even 
dangerous; they are these, — private interests well understood, public force well 
employed, and enervation of body, followed by feebleness of mind, which restrains 
the populace from violent means. 

"Let us make the poor man understand," says the philosopher, " that he has 
an interest in respecting the property of the rich; that his powers and his labor 
are also real property, which require to be respected in their turn ; let us main- 
tain an imposing public force, always ready to act on the menaced point, in order 
to stifle any attempts at disorder at their birth ; let us organize a police, extend- 
ing over society like an immense net, and allowing nothing to escape its sight ; 
let us satisfy the people with cheap enjoyments of all kinds ; let us furnish them 
with the means of imitating, in their grosser orgies, the refined pleasures of our 
saloons and theatres, thereby their manners will be softened — that is to say, they 
will be enervated ; the people will become impotent to make great revolutions, 
their arms being weak, and their hearts cowardly." This is the sytem of those 
who attempt to govern society and control disturbing passions without the aid 
of religion. 

Let us pause for a moment to examine these means. It is, no doubt, easy to 
say. in fine language, that the poor man is interested in respecting the property 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



279 



of the rich ; and that from this consideration alone he ought to submit to the 
established order of things ; and this without even saying a word of the prin- 
ciples of morality, and leaving out all that is removed from mere material inte- 
rests. It is easy to write books to explain such doctrines; but the difficulty 
consists in making them understood in the same way by the wretched father of 
a family, who, confined all the day to hard labor, plunged into an unwholesome 
atmosphere, or buried in the bowels of the earth to work in a coal-mine, can 
scarcely earn the subsistence of himself and his family j and who, returning in 
the evening to his squalid abode, instead of repose and consolation, finds only 
the complaints of his wife and the tears of his children, asking him for a mouth- 
ful of bread. In truth, is it strange that such a doctrine should not be graciously 
received by those wretched beings, whose minds cannot perfectly understand 
the parity between the poor and the rich with respect to the interests of all, 
and the respect due to property ? We will say plainly, that if you banish from 
the world the moral principles, and desire to found the respect due to property 
exclusively on private interest, the words here addressed to the poor man are 
only a solemn imposture : it is false that his private interest is in accordance 
with the interests of the rich. 

Let us suppose the most fearful revolution, let us imagine that the established 
order is radically upset, that authority gives way, that all institutions are swal- 
lowed up, that laws disappear, that properties are divided, or remain abandoned 
to the first who shall seize them, there is no doubt that the rich man loses ; let 
us see what can happen to the poor. Will he be robbed of his wretched pos- 
sessions ? no one will dream of doing so ; misery tempts not cupidity. You will 
tell me that he will find no work, and that hunger will therefore be his lot. That 
is true j but do you not see that in this case the poor man is a gambler at a high 
stake, for whom the chance of loss, arising from the want of work, is compen- 
sated by the probabilities of obtaining a share of the rich booty ? You add that 
he will not be allowed to keep that part ; but observe that, if his poverty becomes 
changed into riches, he will soon imagine a new order of things, a new arrange- 
ment, a government which will guarantee acquired rights, and prevent the 
destruction of established things. Will he be without an example to follow in 
such circumstances ? Have recent examples been so easily forgotten ? The poor 
man sees clearly that a great number of his fellows will suffer evils without end 
or compensation; he is not ignorant that he himself may, perhaps, be of the 
number of the unfortunate 3 but, supposing that he has no other guide than 
interest, supposing that new misfortunes, in the last excess, can bring him only 
hunger and nakedness — things to which he is so well accustomed, whether owing 
to the small return for his labor, or to the frequent interruptions of work and 
the vicissitudes of industry — you cannot charge with rashness the boldness with 
which he comes forward, at the risk of increasing his privations in some degree, 
and with the hope of being delivered from them, perhaps for ever. This is a 
matter of calculation ; and when private interest is in question, we cannot grant 
to philosophy the right of regulating the calculations of the poor. 

The public power, and the vigilance of the police, are the two resources in 
which the best hopes are founded ; and certainly not without reason ; for, at the 
present time, if the world is not revolutionized, it is owing to them. We no 
longer see, as in ancient times, troops of slaves bound together with chains, but we 
see whole armies, with arms in their hands, guarding capitals. If you observe 
closely, after so many discussions, so many trials, so many reforms, so many 
changes, questions of government and public order have, in the end, resolved them- 
selves into questions of force. The rich class is armed against the poor; and 
above both, there are armies to maintain tranquillity with cannon, if necessary. 
Assuredly, the picture which is exhibited to us in this respect, among modern 
nations ; is worthy of our attention. Since the fall of Napoleon, the great powers 
i 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



have enjoyed an Augustan peace; for it is not worth while to speak of the small 
events which, from time to time, have disturbed this universal peace; neither 
the occupation of Ancona, nor the siege of Antwerp, nor the war in Poland, can 
be considered as European wars; as to Spain, limited, as she is by nature, to a 
narrow theatre, she can neither traverse the seas, nor pass the Pyrenean moun- 
tains. Well, in spite of this, the statistics of Europe show us enormous armies ; 
the budgets which are necessary to support them exhaust and overwhelm the 
nations. What is the use of this military preparation ? Do you believe that 
such gigantic forces are kept on foot only that governments may not be taken 
unawares by a general war; that war, which always threatens and never breaks 
out ; that war, which is feared neither by the government nor by the people ? 
No! they have another object : these armies are intended to compensate for the 
moral means, the want of which is deplorably felt on all sides, and nowhere more 
keenly than where the words justice and liberty have been proclaimed with the 
most ostentation. 

The enervation of the numerous classes, by means of monotonous, effortless 
labor, and a complete abandonment to pleasure, may be considered by some as 
an element of order ; as their power of striking is thereby taken away, or at 
least diminished. We allow that the workmen of our age are not capable of 
displaying the terrible energy of ancient champions of the Commons ; of those 
men who, throwing off the yoke of the feudal lords, struggled hand to hand 
with formidable warriors, whose names were immortalized on the plains of Pales- 
tine. The new revolutionists want, also, that courage and that enthusiasm which 
are communicated to the soul by great and generous ideas. The man who 
fights only to procure enjoyments will never be capable of making heroic sacri- 
fices. Sacrifices demand self-denial ; they are incompatible with egotism : now 
the thirst for pleasure is egotism, carried to the last degree of refinement. 
Nevertheless, it must be observed that a mode of life purely material, and 
deprived of the stimulus of the moral principles, ends by extinguishing the 
feelings, and plunges the soul into a sort of stupidity, into a forgetfulness of 
self, which may, in certain cases, supply the place of valor. The soldier who 
marches with tranquillity to death, when leaving a brutal orgie, and the man 
who commits suicide with imperturbable calmness, without anxiety for the future, 
are precisely in the same position. The boldness of the one, and the firmness 
of the other, show contempt of life. So, if we suppose their passions to be 
excited by the trouble of the times, the numerous class may display an energy 
of which they are supposed to be incapable ; the sight of their numbers may 
raise their courage ; bold and cunning leaders, putting themselves at their head, 
may succeed in rendering them terrible. 

However this may be, it is at least certain that society cannot continue its 
career without the aid and influence of moral means ; these means cannot suffice, 
shut up within the narrow circle in which they are confined ; consequently, it 
is indispensable to encourage the development of institutions adapted to exercise 
moral influence in a practical and efficacious manner. Books are not enough ; 
the extension of instruction is but an inefficient means, which may even become 
fatal, unless based upon solid religious ideas. The propagation of a vague reli- 
gious feeling, undefined, without rules, without dogmas or worship, will only 
serve to propagate gross superstitions among the masses, and to form a religion 
of poetry and romance among the cultivated classes ; they are vain remedies, 
which do not stop the progress of the disease ; but, by augmenting the delirium 
of the patient, precipitate his death. 

The education, the instruction, the improvement of the moral condition of the 
people, these words, which are in the mouth of everybody, prove how keenly 
and generally the wound in the social body is felt, and how urgent is the neces- 
sity of the timely application of a remedy, in order to prevent incalculable evils. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



281 



This is the reason why projects of beneficence ferment in so many minds ; why 
it is attempted, under so many different forms, to establish schools for children 
and adults, and other similar institutions; but all will be useless, unless the 
work be confided to Christian charity. Let us profit by the knowledge acquired 
by experience in this matter ; let us take advantage of administrative improve- 
ments, the better to attain our end ; let the establishments be accommodated to 
present wants and exigences ; let charity never embarrass the action of power, 
and power, on its side, never oppose the action of charity : all this will be well ; 
but nothing of all this is inconsistent with a system, in which the Catholic 
religion will recover the influence which belongs to her; of her it may be said, 
with perfect truth, that she makes herself all to all, to gain the whole world. 

The little minds which do not carry their views beyond a limited horizon ; 
bad hearts, which nourish only hatred, and delight only in exciting rancor and 
in calling forth the evil passions ; the fanatics of a mechanical civilization, who 
see no other agent than steam, no other power than gold and silver, no other 
object than production, no other end than pleasure; all these men, assuredly, 
will attach but little importance to the observations which I have made ; for 
them, the moral development of individuals and society is of little importance ; 
they do not even perceive what passes under their eyes ; for them, history is 
mute, experience barren, and the future a mere nothing. Happily there is a 
great number of men who believe that their minds are nobler than metal, more 
powerful than steam, and too grand and too sublime to be satisfied with momen- 
tary pleasure. 

Man, in their eyes, is not a being who lives by chance, given up to the cur- 
rent of time and the mercy of circumstances, who is not called upon to think of 
the destinies which attend him, or to prepare for them, by making a worthy use 
of the moral and intellectual qualifications wherewith the Author of nature has 
favored him. If the physical world is subject to the laws of the Creator, the 
moral world is not less so ; if matter can be used in a thousand ways for the 
profit of man, the mind, created to the image and likeness of G-od, is also 
endowed with valuable powers ; a vast sphere opens before him ; he feels him- 
self called to work for the good of humanity, without confining himself to combi- 
nations and modifications of matter, like an instrument or a slave of the material 
element, whereof the empire and control have been granted to him by Grod. 
Let faith in another life, and charity, which have come down from God, fertilize 
these noble feelings, and enlighten and direct these sublime thoughts ; you will 
then clearly see that matter has no claim to be the ruler of the world ; and that 
the King of the creation has not yet abdicated his rights. But if you attempt 
to build on any other foundation than that which has been established by Grod, 
do not indulge flattering hopes, your edifice will be like the house built upon 
sand ; the rain came, the wind blew, and the edifice was overturned with 
violence. (27) 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

RELIGION AND LIBERTY. 

In the thirteenth chapter of this work we said, " The heart is filled with 
generous indignation when we hear the religion of Jesus Christ reproached with 
a tendency towards oppression. It is true, that if we confound the spirit of 
real liberty with that of demagogues, we shall not find it in Catholicity. But if 
we abstain from a monstrous abuse of the name, if we give to the word liberty 
its reasonable, just, useful, and pleasant meaning, then the Catholic religion may 
fearlessly claim the gratitude of the human race, for she has civilized the nations 
36 y2 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



who have professed her, and civilization is true liberty." From what we have 
already shown, the reader may judge whether Catholicity has been favorable, or 
otherwise, to European civilization, and, consequently, whether she has done 
any injury to real liberty. On the various points on which we have compared 
her with Protestantism, we have seen the injurious tendencies of the one and 
the advantages of the other; the judgment of clear and enlightened reason 
cannot be doubtful. 

As the real liberty of nations does not consist in appearances, but resides in 
their intimate organization, in the same way as the life does in the heart, I might 
dispense with entering into a comparison of the two religions with respect to 
civil liberty; but I do not wish to be accused of having avoided a delicate 
question, from a fear that Catholicity would not come out of it with honor, or to 
allow it to be suspected that my faith has any difficulty in sustaining a parallel 
as advantageously on this ground as on others. 

In order to clear up this question completely, it is necessary to examine 
thoroughly the vague accusations which have been made on this matter against 
Catholicity, and the eulogiums lavished on the pretended Reformation. It is 
necessary to show that only gratuitous calumny has been able to reproach the 
Catholic religion with favoring servitude and oppression ; it is necessary to dissi- 
pate, by the light of philosophy and history, that deceitful prejudice, by the aid 
of which free-thinkers and Protestants have labored to persuade the people that 
Catholicity is favorable to servitude, that the Church is the bulwark of tyrants, 
that the name of Pope is synonymous with that of friend and natural protector 
of whoever desires to debase men and reduce them to servitude. 

There are two ways in which this question may be decided ; by doctrines and 
by facts. 

Those who have said that the human race had lost its rights, and that they 
were revived by Rousseau, certainly have not given themselves much trouble 
in examining what are the real rights of the human race, and what are the 
apocryphal rights advanced by the philosopher of Geneva in his Contrat Social. 
Indeed, it may be said with more truth, that the human race had very valuable 
rights, acknowledged as such, and which Rousseau lost sight of. He under- 
took to examine thoroughly the origin of the civil power, and his wild notions, 
instead of explaining the matter, have only served to confuse it. I believe that 
on this important point men have never had ideas less clear and distinct than 
now. Revolutions have upset every thing in theory and in fact ; governments 
have been sometimes revolutionary, sometimes reactionary ; and sometimes 
revolution, and sometimes reaction, has been predominant. It is extremely 
difficult to obtain from modern books a clear, accurate, and exact knowledge of 
the nature of the civil power, of its origin, and of its relations with subjects ; 
in some of these you will find the doctrines of Rousseau, in others those of 
Ronald : Rousseau is a miner who saps in order to overturn ; Bonald is the 
hero who saves in his arms the tutelary deities of the city delivered to the 
flames ; but in his fear of profanation, he carries them covered with a veil. 
However, it would not be just to attribute to Rousseau the melancholy honor 
of having begun the confusion of ideas on this point; at various times there 
have been found misguided men, who have labored to disturb society by anar- 
chical doctrines ; but the embodiment of these doctrines, and the forming of 
them into seductive theories, dates chiefly from the birth of Protestantism. 
Luther, in his book De Libertate Christiana, sowed the seeds of endless troubles 
by the extravagant doctrine, that a Christian is subject to no one. In vain did 
he have recourse to the evasive declaration, that he did not speak of magistrates 
or civil laws ; the peasants of Germany drew their own consequences ; they rose 
up against their lords, and enkindled a dreadful war. The divine right held by 
Catholics has been accused of favoring despotism ; and it has been considered 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



283 



as so much opposed to the rights of the people, that the two expressions are 
often antithetically employed. Divine right, well understood, is not opposed to 
the rights, hut to the excesses of the people ; so far from giving unlimited 
extent to power, it confines it within the limits of reason, justice, and public 
advantage. In his lectures on the general history of civilization in Europe, M. 
Guizot, speaking of this right as proclaimed by the Church, says : " The rights 
of liberty and political guarantees are combined with difficulty with the prin- 
ciple of religious royalty ; but that principle in itself is elevated, moral, and 
salutary." (Lecture ix.) When men like M. Guizot, who have made these 
questions their special study, are so lamentably deceived on this point, who can 
be astonished that the same thing occurs to the generality of writers ! 

Before I go further, I will make one observation, which we ought always to 
have present to our minds. On these questions we continually hear mention 
made of the schools of Bossuet and of Bonald ; private names are put forward, 
sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. Much as I respect the merits 
of these men, and of others not less illustrious produced by the Catholic Church, 
yet I must observe that she is not responsible for any doctrines but those which 
she herself teaches ; that she is not personified in any doctor in particular ; and 
that being herself appointed by Grod himself to be the oracle of infallible truth 
in faith and morality, she does not permit the faithful to defer blindly to the 
mere word of any private man, however great may be his merit in science and 
in sanctity. If you wish to know what the Catholic Church teaches, consult 
the decisions of her Councils and her Pontiffs ; consult also her doctors of dis- 
tinguished and unsullied reputation ; but beware of confounding the opinions of 
an author, however respectable he may be, with the doctrines of the Church 
and the voice of the Vicar of Jesus Christ. By this warning I do not mean to 
prematurely condemn the opinions of any one, but simply to put those on their 
guard who, little versed in ecclesiastical studies, might, in certain cases, confound 
revealed dogmas with what is mere human thought. Having premised this 
much, let us enter freely into the question. 

Wherein does this divine right, of which we hear so much, consist ? In order 
to explain this matter completely, we must state the objects over which this right 
extends ; for these objects being widely different, there will also be a great differ- 
ence in the application made to them of the principle. A great number of ques- 
tions present themselves in this very important matter; but it appears to me that 
they may all be reduced to these, which embrace the rest, viz. What is the origin 
of the civil power ? How far does it extend ? Is it lawful to resist it in any case ? 

The first question is, What is the origin of the civil power? How do we know 
that this power is from God? There is much confusion prevailing on these 
points ; and certainly it is to be lamented, that at a time so disturbed as the 
present they should be misunderstood ; for whatever may be said to the con- 
trary, doctrines are never wholly laid aside, either in revolutions or in restora- 
tions ; men's interests, no doubt, have great weight therein, but they are not 
left alone in the arena. The best way of forming clear ideas on these points is 
to have recourse to ancient authors, especially those whose doctrines have been 
respected for a long period of time, who continue to be respected down to this 
day, and who are looked upon as safe guides in the right interpretation of eccle- 
siastical doctrines. This way of studying the question which now occupies us 
ought to be acceptable to those even who entertain contempt for the writers of 
whom we speak ; for we are now engaged more in seeking in what the doctrine 
consists, than in examining into its truth. Now for this purpose we cannot 
find witnesses better informed, or interpreters more competent; than men who 
have devoted their whole lives to the study of the doctrine. 

This last reflection is in no way contradictory to what we have said above, 
on the care which we ought to take not to confound the mere opinions of men 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



with the doctrines of the Church ; it only tends to remind us of the necessity 
which exists of perusing a certain class of authors, who are certainly not wor- 
thy of the ungrateful neglect with which they are treated ; indeed, it is impos- 
sible that their important labors, conscientiously pursued for so long a time, 
should produce no fruit. In order to understand the better the opinion of these 
writers on the matter which now occupies us, we ought to observe the difference 
which they make in the application of the general principle of divine right to 
the origin of the civil or to that of the ecclesiastical power. From this compa- 
rison there arises a bright light, which resolves and clears up all difficulties. 
Open the works of the most distinguished theologians, consult their treatises on 
the origin of the power of the Pope, and you will see that in establishing this 
power on divine right, they mean that it emanates from God, not only in a 
general sense, that is, inasmuch as all being comes from God ; not only in a 
social sense, that is, inasmuch as the Church being a society, God has willed 
the existence of a power to govern it ; but in a most special manner that God 
has Himself instituted this power, that He has Himself established its form, 
that He has Himself pointed out the person, and that consequently the successor 
to the chair of St. Peter is of divine right the supreme pastor of the universal 
Church, having over the whole of this Church supreme honor and jurisdiction. 

With respect to the civil power, these authors speak thus. In the first place, 
all power comes from God j for power exists, and all existence comes from God ; 
power is sovereignty, and God is the lord, the supreme master of all things ; 
power is a right, and in God is found the source of all right ; power is a moral 
movement, and God is the universal cause of all sorts of movements ; power 
tends towards an exalted end, and God is the end of all creatures ; His Provi- 
dence ordains and directs all things with mercy and efficacy. Thus we see that 
St. Thomas, in his work De Regimine Principum, affirms that all power comes 
from God as supreme master, as may be shown in three ways : as it is a being, 
as it is a mover, and as it is an end. (Lib. 3, cap. 1.) 

As I am treating of this method of explaining the origin of power, I must 
pause for a moment to refute Rousseau, who, in the allusion which he made to 
this doctrine, showed that he did not understand it. He says, " All power comes 
from God, I allow ; but all diseases also come from Him. Are we, therefore, 
to say that it is forbidden to call in a physician?" (Contrat Social, liv. i. c. 3.) 
It is true that one of the senses in which the divine origin of power is affirmed 
is, that all finite beings emanate from an infinite being ; but this sense is not 
the only one. Indeed, theologians knew very well that this idea, by itself, did 
not imply its legitimacy, and that it extended as well to physical force ; for as 
the author of the Contrat Social adds : " the pistol held by a robber in a wood 
is also a power." Rousseau, in this passage, has sacrificed the sense to show 
his ingenuity ; the love of making a brilliant sally has seduced him into remov- 
ing the question from its proper ground. It was easy, indeed, to see that, with 
respect to the civil power, men do not speak of a physical, but of a moral, a 
legitimate power ; in any other way it would be in vain to seek for its origin : 
as well might they seek the source of riches, health, strength, courage, subtilty, 
or the other qualities which contribute to form the material force of all power. 
The question is with regard to the moral being which is called power; and 
in the moral order, illegitimate power is not power, it is not a being, it is 
nothing. Consequently, there is no need of seeking its origin in God, or in 
any thing else. Therefore, power emanates from God as the source of all right, 
justice, and legitimacy; and in considering power, not as a mere physical, but 
as a moral being, it is affirmed that it can come from God alone, who is the 
plenitude of all being. Not only is this doctrine, taken generally, above all 
difficulty, but it must be admitted by all who do not profess themselves atheists ; 
they alone can call it in question. Let us now descend to particulars, and see 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



285 



whether Catholic doctors teach any thing which is not perfectly reasonable even 
in the eyes of philosophers. 

Man, they say, was not created to live alone; his existence supposes a family; 
his inclinations urge him to form an alliance, without which the humau race 
could not be perpetuated. Families are connected with each other by intimate 
and indestructible ties 5 they have common wants ; none can insure happiness, 
or even preservation, without the aid of others. Therefore they are bound to 
enter into society. Society cannot exist without order, or order without justice; 
and both require a guardian, an interpreter, an executor. This is the civil 
power. God, who created man, and willed also his preservation, consequently 
willed the existence of society, and the power which it requires. Now the 
existence of the civil power is as conformable to the will of God as the existence 
of the paternal ; if families have need of the paternal, society has no less need 
of the civil power. Our Lord has condescended to secure us from mistakes on 
this important point by telling us in the Scriptures, that all power emanates 
from Him, that we are obliged to obey it, that whoever resists it resists the 
Divine command. I seek in vain for an objection to this way of explaining the 
origin of society, and of the power which governs it. This doctrine preserves 
natural, human, and divine right ; all these rights are connected, and support 
each other. The sublimity of the theory rivals its simplicity ; revelation sanc- 
tions what was shown by the light of reason, and grace fortifies nature. Such, 
then, is the famous divine right, presented as a bugbear to the ignorant and 
unsuspecting, in order to make them believe that the Catholic Church, when 
she teaches the obligation of obeying the legitimate power, and founds this obli- 
gation on the law of God, proposes a dogma injurious to true human liberty. 

To hear some men ridicule the divine right of kings, one would say that we 
Catholics believed that certain individuals and families have received bulls of 
institution from Heaven, and that we are grossly ignorant of the history of the 
changes of the civil power. If they had examined the matter more deeply, they 
would have found that, far from being liable to the reproach of such folly, we 
have only established a principle the necessity of which was acknowledged by 
all the legislators of antiquity, and that our belief is quite reconcilable with true 
philosophical doctrines and the events recorded by history. In support of what 
I have said, see with what admirable clearness St. Chrysostom explains this 
point in his 23d homily on the Epistle to the Romans : " There is no power 
that does not come from God." What do you say ? Is every prince, then, 
appointed by God ? I do not say that ; for I do not speak of any prince in 
particular, but of the thing itself, that is, of the power itself : I affirm that the 
existence of principalities is the work of the divine wisdom, and that to it it is 
owing that all things are not given up to blind chance. Therefore it is that the 
Apostle does not say, "That there is no prince who does not come from God;" 
but he says, speaking of the thing in itself, " There is no power which does not 
come from God." " Non est potestas, nisi a Deo. Quid dicis ? Ergo omnis 
princeps a Deo constitutus ? Istud non dico. Non enim de quovis principe 
mihi sermo est, sed de re ipsa, id est de ipsa potestate. Quod enim principatus 
sint, quodque non simpliciter et temere cuncta ferantur, divinse sapientiae opus 
esse dico. Propterea non dicit : non enim princeps est nisi a Deo. Sed de re 
ipsa disserit dicens : non est potestas nisi a Deo." {Horn. 23, in Epist. ad Rom.) 
It appears, from the words of St. John Chrysostom, that the meaning of divine 
right, according to Catholics, is, that there exists a power for the government 
of society, and that it is not abandoned to the mercy of passion and imagination. 
This doctrine, which insures public order, by establishing the obligation of obe- 
dience on motives of conscience, does not descend to the inferior questions, 
which do not affect the fundamental principle. 

It may perhaps be objected, that if we admit the interpretation of St. John 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Chrysostom, it was not necessary for the sacred text to teach that which reason 
so clearly dictated. To this our reply is two-fold : 1st, that the sacred Scripture 
expressly prescribes to us several obligations which nature imposes on us inde- 
pendently of all divine right, as to honor parents, not to kill, not to rob, and 
other things of the kind j 2d, that in the present case the Apostles had very 
good reason to recommend particularly obedience to legitimate power, and to 
sanction in a clear and conclusive manner this obligation, founded on the natural 
law itself. Indeed, the same St. Chrysostom tells us, " that at that time a very 
widely-spread opinion represented the Apostles as seditious men and innovators, 
laboring by their speeches and acts to bring about the downfall of laws." 
" Plurima tunc temporis circumferebatur fama, traducens Apostolos veluti sedi- 
tiosos rerumque novatores ; qui omnia ad evertendum leges communes et face- 
rent et dicerent." {Horn. 23, in Epist. ad Tim.) 

It was no doubt to this that St. Paul alluded when, admonishing the faithful 
of the obligation of obeying authority, he told them that " such was the will of 
God, that by acting thus they might put to silence the imprudence of foolish 
men." (Epist. i. c. 2.) We also know from St. Jerome, that in the beginning 
of the Church, some, hearing the Gospel liberty preached, imagined that uni- 
versal liberty also was meant. The necessity of inculcating a duty, the fulfil- 
ment of which is indispensable for the preservation of society, will be clearly 
perceived if we consider with what ease an error so flattering to proud and rebel- 
lious minds might take root. After fourteen centuries had passed away, we see 
the error reproduced in the time of Wicklifif and John Huss. The Anabaptists 
made a dreadful application of it when they inundated Germany with blood. 
At a later period, the fanatical sectaries of England raised the greatest disorders 
and brought about fearful catastrophes by a similar doctrine, condemning alike 
the civil and ecclesiastical power. 

The religion of Jesus Christ, the law of peace and love, when preaching 
liberty, spoke of that liberty which draws us from the slavery of sin and the 
power of the devil, renders us co-heirs of Jesus Christ, and participators of 
grace and glory. But she was very far from propagating doctrines which could 
favor disorder, or subvert law and authority. It was, then, of the greatest im- 
portance to her to disprove the calumnies by which her enemies attempted to 
injure her; it was necessary for her to proclaim, by her words and acts, that 
the public interest had nothing to fear from her doctrines. We also see that 
after the Apostles had inculcated this sacred obligation on several occasions, the 
Fathers of the earliest times insist again and frequently on the same point. St. 
Poly carp, quoted by Eusebius, (lib. iv. Hist. cap. 15,) says, when speaking to 
the proconsul : " It is ordained to render to the magistrates and powers ap- 
pointed by God the honor which we owe them." St. Justin, in his Apology 
for the Christians, also recalls the precept of Jesus Christ touching the pay- 
ment of tributes : Tertullian, in his Apology, chapter third, reproaches the 
Gentiles with the persecution they directed against the Christians, even at the 
time when the latter, with their hands raised to heaven, were praying for the 
safety of the emperors. The zeal of the saints who were charged with the 
instruction and direction of the faithful succeeded in inculcating this precept so 
well, that the Christians were everywhere a model of submission and obedience. 
Thus Pliny, writing to the Emperor Trajan, avowed that, religion excepted, he 
could not accuse them of being at all wanting in the fulfilment of the laws and 
imperial edicts. 

Nature herself has pointed out the persons in whom resides the paternal 
power ; the wants of the family mark the limits of this power ; the feelings of 
the heart prescribe its object and regulate its conduct. In society it is other- 
wise : the rights of the civil power are tossed about by the storms of human 
events; here this right resides in one person, there in several; to-day it belongs 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY: 



287 



to one family, to-morrow to another ; one day it is exercised under one form, 
the next under another very different. The infant who weeps at his mother's 
bosom reminds her of the obligation of nourishing and watching over it; woman, 
weak and unsupported, calls unmistakably on man to protect her and her child; 
youth, without strength to sustain or knowledge to direct itself, shows parents 
their obligation of care and guardianship. We see clearly the will of God; the 
order of nature forcibly expresses it ; the tenderest feelings are its echo and 
interpreter; we do not require any thing else to show us what is the will of 
God j we do not need any refinement to convince us that the parental power is 
from above. The rights and duties of parents and children are written in cha- 
racters as distinct as they are beautiful. But where shall we find, with respect 
to the civil power, an expression as unequivocal ? If power comes from God, 
by what means does he communicate it ? In what channel is it conveyed ? 
This leads us to other secondary questions, which all conduce to the explanation 
and solution of the principal question. 

Was there ever a man who by natural right found himself invested with civil 
power ? It is clear that in this case power would have no other origin than 
paternal authority ; that is to say, in that case, the civil power ought to be con- 
sidered as an amplification of that authority, as a transformation of domestic 
into civil power. We immediately see the difference between the domestic and 
the social order, their separate objects, the diversity of rules by which they 
must be regulated, and we see how different are the means which they both use 
for their government. I do not deny that the type of society is found in the 
family, and that society is in the most desirable condition when it most 
resembles the family in command and in obedience ; but mere analogies do not 
suffice to establish rights, and it always remains indubitable that those of the 
civil power must not be confounded with those of the paternal. 

On the other hand, the nature of things shows that Providence, in ordaining 
the destinies of the world, did not establish the paternal as the source of the 
civil. Indeed, we do not see how such a power could have been transmitted, 
and the legitimacy of its claims have been justified. We can easily understand 
the limited rule of an old man, governing a society, composed of two or three 
generations only, who were descended from him ; but as soon as this society 
increased, extended to several countries, and consequently was divided and 
subdivided, the patriarchal power must have disappeared, its exercise must have 
become impossible, and we can no longer understand how the pretenders to the 
throne could come to an understanding with each other and the rest of the 
people, to justify and legitimize their rule. The theory which acknowledges 
the paternal as the origin of the civil power may be as promising as you please ; 
it may sustain itself on the example of the patriarchal government, which we 
observe in the cradle of society; but there are two things against it. First, it 
asserts, but does not prove ; second, it has no means of attaining the end for 
which it was intended, viz. the consolidation of government, for it cannot 
establish itself by proving its legitimacy. The greatest of kings and the 
humblest of subjects equally know that they are the sons of Noe; nothing more. 
I have not been able to find this theory either in St. Thomas, or in any of the 
other principal theologians ; and to go still higher, I do not know that it can 
find any authority in the doctrines of the Fathers, in the tradition of the Church, 
or in Scripture itself. It is consequently a mere philosophical opinion, of 
which the explanation and proof belong to those who advance it. Catholicity 
says nothing either for or against it. 

It is then demonstrated that the civil power does not reside in any man of 
natural right, and on the other hand, we know that power comes from God. 
Who receives this power from God, and how does he receive it ? It is necessary 
first to observe, that the Catholic Church, while acknowledging the divine 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



origin of the civil power, an origin which is expressly stated in Scripture, does 
not define any thing either as to the form of this power, or the means which 
God employs in communicating it. So that after the Catholic doctrine is esta- 
blished, there still remains to be examined and discussed, who immediately 
receives the power, and how it is transmitted ? This is acknowledged by theo- 
logians when they have treated of this matter; this should be enough to 
remove the prejudices of those who consider the doctrine of the Church on this 
point as conducive to popular degradation. The Church teaches the obligation 
of obeying legitimate authority, and adds that the power which it exercises 
emanates from G-od ; this doctrine is as applicable to republics as to absolute 
monarchies, and does not prejudge either the forms of government or the par- 
ticular claims of legitimacy. As to these latter questions they cannot be 
answered in general terms; they depend upon a variety of circumstances into 
which the general principles which are the foundation of the good order and 
peace of society cannot enter. I think it is so important to give clear ideas on 
this point, and to state the doctrines of the most distinguished Catholic divines, 
that I consider it necessary to devote an entire chapter to this subject. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE ORIGIN OP SOCIETY, ACCORDING TO CATHOLIC DIVINES. 

There is nothing more instructive or more interesting, than the study of 
public law in those writers who, pretending not to pass for statesmen, and 
entertaining no views of ambition, express themselves without flattery and with- 
out bitterness ; and explain these matters with as much calmness and tran- 
quillity as they would theories of rare application and limited extent. At the 
present time it is almost impossible to open a book without immediately per- 
ceiving to which of the two contending parties the author belongs ; it seldom 
happens that his ideas are not affected by passion, or adapted to serve particular 
designs; and it not unfrequently happens that, without conviction, he speaks 
according to the dictates of his interest. 

It is not so with the old writers, of whom we are speaking. Let us render 
them at least this justice ; that their opinions are conscientious, their language 
loyal and sincere; and whatever may be the judgment with respect to them, 
whether we consider them as real sages, or as ignorant men and fanatics, we 
cannot call in question their sincerity; that they are animated by a religious 
idea, that they develop a philosophical system, that their pens are the faithful 
interpreters of their thoughts. 

Rousseau attempts to seek the origin of society, and of the civil power ; and 
begins the first chapter of his work with these words: "Man is born free, and 
he is everywhere in fetters." Do you not immediately perceive the tribune 
under the mantle of the philosopher? Do you not observe that, instead of 
addressing himself to the reason, the writer appeals to the passions; and wounds 
the most susceptible of them — viz. pride. It is in vain for the philosopher to 
endeavor to make us believe that he does not intend to reduce his doctrines to 
practice ; his language betrays his design. In another place, where he attempts 
nothing less than to give advice to a great nation, he has hardly begun when 
he holds over Europe the torch of an incendiary. 

" When we read ancient history, we fancy ourselves transported to another 
world, and among other beings. What have the French, the English, the Rus- 
sians, in common with the Greeks and Romans ? Hardly any thing but the 
form. The great souls of the latter appear to the others as exaggerations of 
history. How can they, who feel themselves to be so little, imagine that such 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



289 



great men ever existed ? They did exist, however ; and they were human like 
ourselves. What hinders our being men like them ? Our prejudices, our low 
philosophy, and grovelling passions, combined with the egotism of men's hearts, 
by absurd institutions, directed by men of little minds/' (Considerations on the 
Government of Poland, &c., Chap. 2.) Do you not observe the poison conveyed 
in these words of the publicist ? And is it not palpable that he had something 
more in view than enlightening the mind ? See with what address he attempts 
to produce a feeling of irritation, by harsh and indecent reproaches. 

Let Us take the opposite extreme of the comparison, and see in how different 
a tone St. Thomas of Aquin, in his work De Regimine Principum, begins his 
explanation on the same subject, and gives directions for good government. (a) 1 

"If man," he says, "was intended to live alone, like many animals, he 
would not require any one to govern him \ every man would be his own king, 
under the supreme command of God ; inasmuch as he would govern himself by 
the light of reason given him by the Creator. But it is in the nature of man 
to be a social and political animal, living in community, differently from all 
other animals ; a thing which is clearly shown by the necessities of his nature. 
Nature has provided for other animals food \ skins for a covering, means of 
defence, — as teeth, horns, claws, — or, at least, speed in flight ; but she has not 
endowed man with any of those qualities ; and instead she has given him rea- 
son, by which, with the assistance of his hands, he can procure what he wants. 
But to procure this, one man alone is not enough ; for he is not in a condition 
to preserve his own life ; it is, therefore, in man's nature to live in society. 
Moreover, nature has granted to other animals the power of discerning what is 
useful or injurious to them : thus the sheep has a natural horror of his enemy 
the wolf. There are also certain animals who know by nature the herbs which 
are medicinal to them, and other things which are necessary for their preserva- 
tion. But man has not naturally the knowledge which is requisite for the sup- 
port of life, except in society ; inasmuch as the aid of reason is capable of lead- 
ing from universal principles to the knowledge of particular things, which are 
necessary for life. Thus, then, since it is impossible for man alone to obtain 
all this knowledge, it is necessary that he should live in society, one aiding 
another ; each one applying to his own task ; for example, some in medicine ; 
some in one way, and some in another. This is shown with great clearness in 
that faculty peculiar to man, language — which enables him to communicate his 
thoughts to others. Indeed, brute animals mutually communicate their feel- 
ings ; as the dog communicates his anger by barking, and other animals their 
passions by various ways. But man, with respect to his fellows, is more com- 
municative than any other animal; even than those who are the most inclined 
to live in union, as cranes, ants, and bees. In this sense, Solomon says, in 
Ecclesiastes : ' It is better, therefore, that two should be together than one ; for 
they have the advantage of their society.' Thus, if it be natural for man to 
live in society, it is necessary that some one should direct the multitude ; for if 
many were united, and each one did as he thought proper, they would fall to 
pieces, unless somebody looked after the public good, as would be the case with 
the human body, and that of any other animal, if there did not exist a power to 
watch over the welfare of all the members. Thus Solomon says : ' Thus, where 
there is no one to govern, the people will be dispersed.' In man himself the 
soul directs the body; and in the soul, the feelings of anger and concupiscence 
are governed by the reason. Among the members of the body, there is one 

1 This subject is so important, so delicate, that I shall not be satisfied with giving a translation 
of the passages which I quote, however careful I may be to render them exact and literal, at the 
risk of irregularity of style and violation of the idiom of our language. I wish, therefore, to set 
before the reader the original texts themselves, desiring him to judge from them and not from 
my version. [They will be found in the Appendix.] 
37 Z 



290 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



principal one, which directs all ; as the heart or the head. There ought, then, 
to be in every multitude some governing power." (St. Thomas, Be Regimine 
Principum, lib. i. cap. 1.) 

This passage, so remarkable for profound wisdom, clearness of ideas, solidity 
of principles, vigor and exactness of deductions, contains, in a few words, all 
that can be said with respect to the origin of society, and of power; to the rights 
enjoyed by the latter, and the obligations incumbent upon it : the matter being 
considered in general, and by the light of reason alone. In the first place, it 
was required to show, with clearness, the necessity of the existence of society ; 
and this the holy doctor does by this very simple reasoning — man is of such a 
nature that he cannot live alone, and then he has need of being united to his 
fellows. If a proof of this fundamental truth be required, it is found in the fact 
that he is endowed with speech ; this is a sign that by nature he is destined to 
communicate with other men, and consequently to live in society. After having 
proved this invincible necessity, it remained to demonstrate a necessity not less 
absolute — viz. the necessity of a power to govern society. In order to make 
this demonstration, St. Thomas does not invent extravagant systems, or 
unfounded theories ; he does not appeal to absurd suppositions ; he is satisfied 
with a reason founded on the nature of things, dictated by common sense, and 
supported by daily experience — viz. that in all bodies of men, there is a direc- 
tor requisite ; since, without him, disorder, and even dispersion, are inevitable ; 
for in all societies there must be a chief. 

It must be allowed that this clear and simple explanation enables us to under- 
stand the theory of the origin of society much better than all the subtilties of 
explicit and implicit pacts ; it is enough for a thing to be founded on nature 
itself, for it to be viewed as demonstrated as a real necessity, in order that its 
existence may be easily conceived ; why then seek, by subtilties and supposi- 
tions, what is apparent at the first view ? 

Let us not, however, suppose that St. Thomas does not acknowledge divine 
right, or is ignorant that the obligation of obedience to power may be founded 
on it : far from it ; this truth he establishes in many places in his works ; but 
he does not forget the natural and the human law, which, on this point, are 
combined and allied with the divine, in such a way, that the latter is only a 
confirmation of, and gives a sanction to, the others. We ought thus to inter- 
pret the passages in which the holy doctor attributes the civil power to human 
law, considering this law with that of grace. For example, when examining 
whether infidels can have dominion or supremacy over the faithful, he says : (b) 
u It is necessary here to consider that dominion or supremacy is introduced by 
virtue of human law ) the distinction between the faithful and infidels, is by 
divine law. Divine law, which emanates from grace, does not take away human 
law, which is founded on the law of natural reason ; therefore the distinction 
between the faithful and infidels, considered in itself, does not take away the 
dominion or supremacy of infidels over the faithful." 

When inquiring, in another place, if the prince who has apostatized from the 
faith by this fact loses dominion over his subjects, so that they are no longer 
called upon to obey him, he expresses himself thus : (c) "As has been said 
before, infidelity does not destroy dominion itself ; for dominion was introduced 
by the law of nations, which is human right ; while the distinction between the 
faithful and infidels is by a divine, which does not take away the human right." 
Again ; when examining if man is obliged to obey another man, he says : (d) 
" As natural actions proceed from natural powers, so human operations proceed 
from the human will. In natural things, it was necessary that inferior things 
should be brought into their respective operations by the excellence of the natu- 
ral virtue which God has given to superior things. In the same way, also, it is 
necessary that in human things, those which are superior should urge on the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



291 



inferior, by the force of authority ordained by God. To move, by means of 
reason and the will, is to command ; and as, by virtue of the natural order 
instituted by God, inferior things in nature are necessarily subject to the motion 
of superior things, so also, in human things, those which are inferior ought, by 
natural and divine right, to obey those which are superior." 

On the same question, St. Thomas examines whether obedience is a special 
virtue, and he answers, (e) " That to obey a superior is a duty conformable to 
the divine order communicated to things." In the 6th article, he states the 
question whether Christians are obliged to obey the secular powers, and says : (/) 
" The faith of Christ is the principle and cause of justice, according to what is 
said in the Epistle to the Romans, chap. iii. 'the justice of God by the faith of 
Jesus Christ.' Thus the faith of Christ does not take away the law of justice, 
but rather confirms it. This law wills that inferiors should obey their superiors ; 
for without that, human society could not be preserved; and thus the faith of 
Christ does not exempt the faithful from the obligation of obeying the secular 
powers." I have quoted at some length these passages from St. Thomas, in 
order to show that he does not understand the divine right in the sense in which 
the enemies of Catholicity have made it a reproach to us; but that, properly 
speaking, while he adheres to a dogma so expressly taught in the sacred text, he 
considers the Divine law as a confirmation and sanction of the natural and human 
law. We know that for six centuries Catholic doctors have regarded the author- 
ity of St. Thomas as worthy of the highest respect in all that concerns faith and 
morality. 

We have just seen that this angel of the schools establishes, as founded on 
the natural, human, and divine law, the duty of obeying authority, affirming 
that the source of all power is found in God, without entering into the question 
whether God communicates this power directly or indirectly to those who exer- 
cise it, and leaving a vast field where human opinions may debate without violat- 
ing the purity of faith. In the same way, the most eminent doctors who have 
succeeded him in the Catholic pulpits have contented themselves with establish- 
ing and enforcing the doctrine, without rashly making use of the authority of 
the Church in its application. To prove this I will here insert some passages 
from distinguished theologians. Cardinal Bellarmin expresses himself in these 
words: (jg) "It is certain that public authority comes from God, from whom 
alone emanate all things good and lawful, as is proved by St. Augustin through- 
out almost all the forty-five books of the City of God. Indeed, the Wisdom 
of God, in the Book of Proverbs, chap, viii., cries out, 1 It is by Me that kings 
reign;' and further on, 'It is by Me that princes rule.' The prophet Daniel, in 
the second chapter, ' The God of heaven has given thee the kingdom and the 
empire ;' and the same prophet, in the fourth chapter, ' Thy dwelling shall be 
with cattle and with wild beasts, and thou shalt eat grass as an ox, and shalt be 
wet with the dew of heaven, and seven years shall pass over thee, till thou know 
that the Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomso- 
ever He will.' " After having proved, by the authority of the Holy Scriptures, 
this dogma, viz. that the civil power comes from God, the illustrious writer 
explains the sense in which it ought to be understood : (K) " But," he says, " it 
is necessary to make some observations here. In the first place, political power, 
considered in general, and without descending in particular to monarchy, aris- 
tocracy, or democracy, emanates immediately from God alone ; for being neces- 
sarily annexed to the nature of man, it proceeds from Him who has made that 
nature. Besides, that power is by natural law, since it does not depend upon 
men's consent, since they must have a government whether they wish it or not, 
under pain of desiring the destruction of the human race, which is against the 
inclination of nature. It is thus that the law of nature is divine law, and 
government is introduced by divine law ; and it is particularly this which the 



292 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



Apostle seems to have had in view when he says to the Romans, chap, xiii., 
( He who resists authority, resists the ordinance of God.' " 

This doctrine destroys all the theory of Rousseau, who makes the existence 
of society and the right of the civil power depend on human conventions ; it also 
overturns the absurd systems of some Protestants, and other heretics, their prede- 
cessors, who, in the name of Christian liberty, pretended to condemn all authority. 
No ! the existence of society does not depend on the consent of man ; society 
is not his work; it satisfies an imperious necessity, which, if it were not satisfied, 
would entail the destruction of the human race. God, when he created man, 
did not deliver him to the mercy of chance ; He has given him the right of ful- 
filling his necessities, and has imposed on him the care of his own preservation 
as a duty ; therefore the existence of the human race includes also the existence 
of government, and the obligations of obedience. There is no theory so clear, 
simple, and solid. Shall it be called the enemy and oppressor of human free- 
dom ? Is it any disgrace to man to acknowledge himself the creature of God ? 
to confess that he has received from Him what is necessary for his preservation ? 
Is the intervention of God any infringement of human liberty, and cannot man be 
free without being an Atheist ? It is absurd to say there is any thing favorable 
to servitude in a doctrine which tells us " God wills not that you should live like 
wild beasts : He commands you to be united in society, and for this purpose He 
orders you to live in submission to an authority legitimately established." If 
this be called servitude and oppression, we desire this servitude, we willingly 
give up the right which is pretended to be granted to us of wandering in the 
woods like wild beasts : true liberty does not exist in man when he is stripped 
of the finest attribute of his nature, that of acting in conformity with reason. 

Such is the explanation of divine right accordiag to the illustrious commen- 
tator whom we have just quoted; let us now see the applications which he makes 
of it, and learn in what way, according to him, God communicates the civil 
power to those who are charged with its exercise. After the words quoted above, 
Bellarmin continues : (i) " In the second place, observe, that this power resides 
immediately, as in its subject, in all the multitude, for it is by divine right. The 
divine right has not given this power to any man in particular, for it has given 
it to the multitude ; besides, the positive law being taken away, there is no reason 
why one should rule rather than another, among a great number of equal men; 
therefore power belongs to the whole multitude. In fine, society should be a 
perfect state ; it should have the power of self-preservation, and, consequently, 
that of chastising the disturbers of the peace." 

This doctrine has nothing in common with the foolish assertions of Rousseau 
and his followers ; no one who has studied public law will confound things so 
different. Indeed, what the Cardinal establishes in the passage quoted, viz. that 
power resides immediately in the multitude, is not in opposition to what he him- 
self taught a little before, when he said that it comes from God, and is not owing 
to human conventions. His doctrine may be conveyed in this form. Suppose 
a number of men without any positive law j there is then no reason why any 
one of them should have a right to rule the rest. Nevertheless, this law exists, 
nature itself indicates its necessity, God ordains a government; therefore there 
exists among this number of men the legitimate power of instituting one. To 
explain more clearly the ideas of this illustrious theologian, let us suppose that 
a considerable number of families, perfectly equal among themselves and abso- 
lutely independent of each other, were thrown by a tempest on a desert island. 
The vessel being destroyed, they have no hope either of returning home or of 
pursuing their journey. All communication with the rest of mankind is become 
impossible : we ask, whether these families could live without government ? No.* 
Has any one among them a right of governing the rest ? Clearly not. Can any 
individual among them pretend to such a right ? Certainly not. Have they a 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 293 

right to appoint the government of which they stand in need ? Certainly they 
have. Therefore in this multitude, represented by the fathers of families or in 
some other way, resides the civil power, together with the right of transmitting 
it to one or more persons, according as they shall judge proper. It is difficult 
to make any valid objection to the doctrine placed in this point of view. That 
this is the real meaning of his words is clearly shown by the observations which 
follow : (k) "In the third place," he says, "observe that the multitude transfers 
this power to one person or more by natural right j for the republic not being 
able to exercise it by itself, is obliged to communicate it to one or to a limited 
number; and it is thus that the power of princes, considered in general, is by 
natural and divine law ; and the whole human race, if assembled together, could 
not establish the contrary, viz. that princes or governors did not exist." 

But the fundamental principle being once established, Bellarmin allows to 
society an ample right of appointing the form of government which they think 
proper. This ought to refute the accusations made against the Catholic doctrine, 
of favoring servitude ; for if all forms of government are reconcilable with this 
doctrine, it is evident that it cannot justly be accused of being incompatible with 
liberty. Hear how the same author continues on this point : (I) u Observe, in 
the fourth place," he says, " that particular forms of government are by the 
law of nations, and not by divine law, since it depends upon the consent of the 
multitude to place over themselves a king, consuls, or other magistrates, as is 
clear • and, for a legitimate reason, they can change royalty into aristocracy, or 
into democracy, or vice versa, as it was done in Rome. 

" Observe, in the fifth place, that it follows, from what we have said, that this 
power in particular comes from God, but by means of the counsel and election 
of man, like all other things which belong to the law of nations ; for the law of 
nations is, as it were, a conclusion drawn from the natural law by human 
reasoning. Thence follows a two-fold difference between the political and the 
ecclesiastical power : first, difference with regard to the subject, since political 
power is in the multitude, and ecclesiastical in a man immediately, as in its 
subject; second, difference with respect to the cause, since political power, 
considered generally, is by divine law, and in particular by the law of nations, 
while the ecclesiastical power is in every way by divine law, and emanates imme- 
diately from Grod." 

These last words show clearly how correct I was in saying that theologians 
understand the divine law in a very different manner, according as it is applied 
to the civil or to the ecclesiastical power. It must not be supposed that the 
doctrine now stated is peculiar to Cardinal Bellarmin j the generality of theo- 
logians follow him on this point ; but I have preferred quoting his authority, 
because he, being so strongly attached to the See of Borne, if the latter were 
imbued with the principles of despotism, as it has been charged with being, no 
doubt, something of them would appear in the writings of this theologian. It 
is easy to anticipate the objection that will be made to this explanation ; we 
shall be told that Bellarmin, having for his object the exaltation of the authority 
of the Sovereign Pontiff, with this view attempted to lower the power of kings, 
in order to take away or diminish all opposition to the authority of the Popes. 
I will not now enter into an examination of the opinions of Bellarmin with 
respect to the two powers — this would be foreign to my design ; besides, such 
points of civil and ecclesiastical law excited at that time great interest, on 
account of circumstances at that period, but now very little, on account of the 
new course which events have taken, and the great change which has been 
brought about in ideas. I shall, nevertheless, reply to this supposed difficulty 
by two very simple observations. The first is, that we have not to inquire the 
intentions of Bellarmin in explaining his doctrine, but in what that doctrine 
consists. Whatever his motive may have been, we see an author of vast renown, 

z2 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



whose opinion has great weight in Catholic schools, and who wrote at Rome, 
where, so far from his writings being condemned, he was surrounded with respect 
and honor : this theologian, I say, explaining the doctrine of the Church on the 
Divine origin of the civil power, does it in such terms that, while giving sacred 
guarantees for the good order of society, he does not infringe on the liberty of 
the people ; this is the vindication of Rome against the attacks made upon her. 
The second is, that Cardinal Bellarmin does not here profess an isolated opinion — 
the generality of theologians are on his side ; therefore, all that can be said 
against him personally proves nothing against his doctrines. Among the many 
authors that I could quote, I will select some who will represent many different 
periods : and as the obligation of being brief confines me within narrow limits, 
I beg the reader himself to examine the works of Catholic theologians and 
moralists ) he will thus make sure of becoming acquainted with their thoughts 
on this subject. Hear how Suarez explains the origin of power : (m) "Herein," 
he says, " the common opinion seems to be, that God, inasmuch as He is the 
author of nature, gives the power ; so that men are, so to speak, the matter and 
subject capable of this power ; while God gives the form by giving the power." 
{Be Leg. lib. iii. c. 3.) 

He goes on to develop his doctrine, relying on the reason usually made use of 
in this matter; and when he comes to draw the conclusions, he explains how 
society, which, according to him, receives the power immediately from God, 
communicates it to certain persons. He adds : (11) " In the second place, it 
follows from what has been said, that the civil power, whenever it is found in a 
man or a prince, has emanated according to usual and legitimate law, from the 
people and the community, either directly or remotely, and that it cannot 
otherwise be justly possessed." {Ibid. cap. 4.) 

Perhaps some of my readers may not know that a Spanish Jesuit maintained 
against the King of England in person, the doctrine that princes receive power 
mediately from God, and immediately from the people. This Jesuit is Suarez 
himself, and the book to which I allude is called, (0) " Defence of the Catholic 
and Apostolic Faith against the errors of the Anglican sect ; accompanied by a 
Reply to the Apology for the Oath of Fidelity, and to the monitary Preface pub- 
lished by the most serene James, King of England. By P. D. Francois Suarez, 
Professor at the University of Coimbra • addressed to the most serene Kings and 
Princes of the Christian world." 

In the third book, chapter second, where he discusses the question, Whether 
the political sovereignty comes immediately from God or from divine institution, 
Suarez says : " Here the most serene King not only gives a new and singular 
opinion, but also acrimoniously attacks Cardinal Bellarmin, for having affirmed 
that Kings have not received authority immediately from God like the Popes. 
He himself affirms that Kings hold their power not from the people, but imme- 
diately from God ; and he attempts to support his opinion by arguments and 
examples the value of which I shall examine in the next chapter. 

" Although this controversy does not immediately concern the dogmas of faith 
(for we have nothing in reference to it either in the Scriptures or in the Fathers), 
it may nevertheless be well to discuss and explain it carefully; 1. because it 
might possibly lead to error in other dogmas ; 2. because the above opinion of the 
King, as he maintains and explains it, is new, singular, and apparently invented 
to exalt the temporal at the expense of the spiritual power ; and 3. because we 
consider the opinion of the illustrious Bellarmin ancient, received, true, and 
necessary" But we must not attribute these opinions to the circumstances of 
the times, nor suppose that they disappeared from the schools of theologians as 
soon as they were advanced. In support of them, a multitude of authors might 
very easily be cited, who would show that Suarez was correct in saying that the 
opinion of Bellarmin was received and ancient ; they would, moreover, show 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



295 



that this doctrine continued to be admitted as a matter of course, without any 
doubt of its orthodoxy, or of its containing any thing dangerous to the stability 
of monarchies. In proof of what is here adduced, I will cite passages from 
distinguished authors, proving that at Home this mode of explaining the right 
divine has never been called in question ; and that in France and Spain, where 
absolute monarchy had taken so deep root, this opinion was no longer regarded 
as dangerous to the stability of thrones. A long period had already elapsed — 
the critical position which might more or less influence the direction of ideas had 
consequently disappeared, yet theologians still maintained the same doctrines. 
Cardinal Gotti, who wrote in the early part of the last century, gives, in his 
Treatise upon Laws, the above opinion as previously admitted, without even 
attempting to confirm it. (p ) In the Moral Theology of Herman Busenbaum, 
enlarged by St. Alphonsus Liguori, book 1st, second Treatise upon Laws, 
(chap. i. dub. 2, § 104,) it is expressly said : " It is certain that the power of 
making laws exists among men, but as far as civil laws are concerned, this power 
belongs naturally to no individual. It belongs to the community, who transfer 
it to one or to more, that by them the community itself may be governed." 

Should any one say that I quote the Jesuits only, or suspect that these doc- 
trines are mere casuistry, I will cite remarkable passages from other theologians, 
who are neither casuists nor prepossessed in favor of the J esuits. Father Daniel 
Concina, who wrote at Rome about the middle of the last century, supports the 
same doctrine as generally admitted ; in his Theologie chretienne dogmatico- 
morale, Roman edition, 1768, he expresses himself as follows : (q) " All writers 
generally assert that the origin of supreme power is of God, as Solomon declares 
in the Book of Proverbs, c. viii., saying, ' By Me kings reign, and lawgivers 
decree just things as truly as subordinate princes are dependent upon the 
supreme temporal majesty, so, in like manner, this majesty itself must depend 
upon the supreme King and Lord of lords. Theologians and jurists dispute 
whether this supreme power comes immediately from God, or merely in an indi- 
rect manner. Many affirm that it emanates immediately from God, because it 
cannot emanate from men, whether we consider them collectively or individually ; 
for all fathers of families are equal, and each possesses, with regard to his own 
family, a power merely economical ; from which it follows, that they cannot 
confer upon others that civil and political power which they themselves do not 
possess. Moreover, if the community, in its superiority, had delegated to one 
or to more the power here under discussion, it could revoke it at pleasure, for 
the superior is always at liberty to withdraw the facilities he has delegated to 
another, and this would be very injurious to society. 

" In support of the opposite opinion, many answer, and certainly with more 
probability and truth, that, in reality, all power proceeds from God, but that it 
is not delegated to any particular individual directly, unless by consent of civil 
society. That this power is not vested directly in any individual, but in the 
entire collection of men, is what St. Thomas expressly teaches (1, 2, qu. 90, 
art. 3, ad 2, et qu. 97, art. 3, ad 3), followed by Dominic Soto (lib. i. qu. 1, 
art. 3) ; by Ledesma (2 part. qu. 18, art. 3) ; and by Covarruvias (in Pract. 
cap. i.). The reason of this is evident; for as all men are born free with regard 
to civil society, no one has any civil power over another, since this power exists 
not in each, nor in any of them in a fixed manner ; it follows, therefore, that it 
is vested in the whole collection of men. God does not confer this poiver by any 
special act distinct from creation, but it is a property of right reason, inasmuch 
as right reason dictates that men, united in one moral toJwle, shall prescribe, by 
express or tacit consent, in what manner society shall be goveimed, preserved, and 
•upheld." 

It is proper to remark, that Father Concina, speaking here of tacit or express 
consent, has not in view the actual existence of society, nor the authority by 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



which it is governed, but merely the mode of exercising this authority for the 
direction, preservation, and defence of society. Hence, his opinion coincides 
with that of Bellarmin ; society and power are of right divine and natural, but 
the mode of organizing society, and of transmitting and exercising authority, is 
human. After having shown in what sense we are to understand that civil 
power comes from God, Concina resumes the question which he had proposed, 
viz. in what manner authority exists in kiDgs, princes, and other supreme heads 
of government. He proceeds as follows : (r) " It is evident, therefore, that the 
power existing in the prince, the king, or in many persons whether nobles or 
plebeians, emanates from the community itself, directly or indirectly ■ for, if it 
came immediately from God, it would be manifested to us in a particular man- 
ner, as in the instances of Saul and David, who were chosen by God. We 
consider, therefore, erroneous, the doctrine that God confers this power imme- 
diately and directly upon the king, the prince, or any other head of supreme 
government whatever, to the exclusion of the tacit or express consent of the 
public. This discussion, it is true, is one of words rather than of things, for 
this power comes from God, the author of nature, inasmuch as He has ordained 
and appointed that the public itself shall confer upon one or more the power of 
supreme government, for the preservation and defence of society. The nomi- 
nation of the person or persons appointed to command being once made, their 
power is said to come from God, because society itself is bound by natural and 
divine right to obey him who commands. In fact, it is the will of God that 
society shall be governed, whether by one individual or by several. In this 
manner the several opinions of theologians are reconciled with each other, and 
the oracles of Scripture appear in their true sense : { He that resisteth the 
power, resisteth the ordinance of God.' ' There is no power but from God.' 
( Be subject, therefore, to every human creature for God's sake, whether to the 
king,' &c. ' Thou wouldst not have any power against Me, unless it were given 
thee from above.' These testimonies, and others of a like nature, ought to con- 
vince us that all is ordained and directed by God, the supreme Mediator. This, 
however, does not exclude the operations of human institutions, as is very justly 
interpreted by St. Augustin and St. John Chrysostom." 

Father Billuart, who lived in the early part of last century, and, consequently, 
at the same epoch when the highly monarchical traditions of Louis XIV. were 
in all their vigor, expressed the same ideas on this subject as the theologians 
above cited. In his work on Moral Theology, which, for almost a century, has 
been widely circulated, he thus expresses himself : (s) "I maintain, in the first 
place, that legislative power belongs to the community, or to its representative." 
After quoting St. Thomas and St. Isidore, he continues : " Reason proves, that 
to make laws belongs of right to him who is appointed to watch over the public 
good j for the maintenance of the public good, as has been already said, is the 
end and aim of the laws. It is the duty of the community, or of its ruler, to 
watch over the public good; for as the welfare of an individual is a fit object 
for individual agency, so is the public good for the agency of the community, or 
of him to whom its functions have been delegated ; the power of legislation, 
therefore, is vested in the community, or in its representative. I will confirm 
what is here advanced. The law has the power of commanding and of coercing 
in such a manner that no individual has any authority to command or restrain 
the multitude. This authority belongs exclusively to the community, or to its 
representative ; to these, therefore, legislative power belongs." Having made 
these reflections, Billuart starts another difficulty with regard to the extreme 
extension which he appears to have given to the rights of the multitude. On 
this occasion he developes his system still further, (t) 

"It will be objected," says he, "that the right of commanding and compel- 
ling is vested in the superior, and cannot belong to the community, since it is 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



297 



not superior to itself. To this I reply : Society, in one sense, is not superior 
to itself, but in another it is. The community may be considered collectively 
as one moral body, and in this sense it is superior to itself as considered distri- 
butively in each of its members. Again ; it may be considered as acting in the 
place of God, from whom emanates all legislative power, as it is said in Pro- 
verbs : ' By Me kings reign and the lawgivers decree just things or as capable 
of being governed conformably to the public good. In the former case, it is 
superior and legislative; in the latter, inferior and subject to the law." 

As this explanation might appear somewhat obscure, Billuart proceeds to 
investigate more profoundly the origin of society and of civil power. He endea- 
vors to show how the natural, the divine, and the human laws agree on this 
point, defining what belongs to each. He then continues as follows : (u) 11 To 
render this more clear, it must be observed, that man, unlike other animals, is 
born destitute of many things necessary both for body and soul, and that for 
these he is indebted to society and the assistance of his fellow-mortals ; conse- 
quently he is, by his very nature, a social animal. This society, which nature 
and reason prescribe to him as indispensable, cannot long exist without some 
power to direct it, according to what is said in Proverbs : 1 Where there is no 
governor, the people will come to ruin/ Whence it follows, that God, who has 
given this nature, has also given the power of governing and of legislating. He, 
in fact, who gives the form, gives, at the same time, all that such form necessa- 
rily requires. But as it is not possible for this executive and legislative power 
to be exercised by the entire multitude, since it would be difficult for all and 
each forming this multitude to assemble on all occasions when the affairs of the 
commonweal are to be discussed, or laws to be established, it is usual for the 
multitude to transfer its right or governing power, either to a number of people 
selected from all classes, and bearing the name of a democracy ) or to a select 
number of the nobles, which takes the name of an aristocracy ; or to one alone, 
for himself only, or for his successors, by virtue of the right of hereditary suc- 
cession, which is styled a monarchy. From which it is evident that all power 
comes from God, as the Apostle says, in his Epistle to the Romans, chap. xiii. 
This power resides in the community, directly and by natural right, but in 
kings and other rulers merely indirectly and by human right, unless God con- 
fers it directly upon certain individuals, as He did upon Moses over the Jews, 
and as Christ has conferred it upon the Supreme Pontiff over the whole Church.' ' 
What is still more remarkable, our absolute monarchies were never alarmed at 
these theological doctrines, not only previous to the French Revolution, but 
since that Revolution, and up to the time commonly styled with us the fatal 
decade, (from 1823 to 1833, the latter part of the reign of Ferdinand VII.) 
It is well known that during that period the Compendium Salmaticense (Com- 
pendium of Salamanca) had a most favorable reception in this country, and 
served as a text-book among the professors of ethics in the colleges and univer- 
sities. Ye who are continually declaiming against this epoch, imagining, with- 
out doubt, that in those days no other doctrines than those in favor of the most 
arrant despotism could be circulated, listen to what is said in the above book, 
which was then placed in the hands of every youth destined to the ecclesiastical 
state. After having established the existence of a civil legislative power, the 
author thus proceeds : (x) " You will ask me, in the second place, whether the 
prince receives this civil legislative power immediately from God. I reply, It 
5 is universally admitted that princes receive this power from God; but, at the 
same time, it is maintained with more truth, that they do not receive it directly, 
but through the medium of the people's consent ; for all men are naturally equal, 
and there is no natural distinction of superiority or inferiority. Since nature 
has not given any individual power over another, God has conferred this power 
upon the community ; which, as it may think it more proper to be ruled by one 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



or by many appointed persons, transfers it to one or to many, that by them it 
may be ruled; according to St. Thomas (1, 2, qu. 90, art. 3, ad 2). From this 
natural principle arises the variety in the forms of civil government; for if a 
state transfers all its power to a single individual, this government is termed 
monarchical ; if it confers it upon the nobles of the nation, it takes the name 
of an aristocracy; if the people or the state retain this power in their own 
hands, the civil government is styled a democracy. Princes, therefore, receive 
from God the power of commanding ; for supposing the election made by the 
whole state, God confers upon the prince the power which was vested in the 
community. Whence it follows, that the prince rules and governs in the name 
of God, and whoever resists him resists the ordinance of God, according to the 
words of the Apostle above cited." 



CHAPTER L. 

ON THE RIGHT DIVINE, ACCORDING TO THE CATHOLIC DOCTORS. 

The doctrine of the right divine, considered in its relation to society, presents 
to our notice two particular points which this doctrine contains: 1. The origin 
of civil power; 2. The mode in which God communicates this power. 

The former point is a question of doctrine. No Catholic can entertain any 
doubt upon it. The second is open to discussion ; and various opinions may be 
formed upon it, without interfering with faith. With regard to the right divine, 
considered in itself, true philosophy agrees with Catholicity. In fact, if civil 
power comes not from God, to what source can we trace its origin ? Upon what 
solid principle can we support it ? If the man who exercises it does not rest 
upon God the legitimacy of his power, no title will avail to uphold his right. 
It will be radically and irretrievably null. On the contrary, supposing autho- 
rity to come from God, our duty to submit to it becomes evident, and our dig- 
nity is not in the least hurt by the submission ; but, in the other supposition, 
we see only force, craft, tyranny, but no reason or justice ; perhaps a necessity 
for submission, but no obligation. By what title does any man pretend to 
command us ? Because he is possessed of superior intellect ? Who had the 
right of adjudging to him the palm ? Besides, this superiority does not con- 
stitute a right ; in some instances its direction might be useful to us, but it will 
not be obligatory. Is it because he is stronger than we ? In that case the 
elephant ought to be king of the entire world. Is it because he is more wealthy 
than we ? Reason and justice exist not in metal. The rich man is born naked, 
and his riches will not descend with him into the tomb. Upon earth they have 
enabled him to acquire power ; but they do not confer upon him any right to 
exercise it over others. Shall it consist in certain faculties conferred on him 
by others? who has constituted other men our proxies? where is their consent? 
who has collected their votes ? and how can either we or they natter ourselves 
that we possess faculties equal to the exercise of civil power ? and if we do not 
possess them, how can we delegate them ? 

We must here consider the doctrine which places the origin of civil power in 
the will of men, supposing that this power is the result of a pact, by which 
individuals have agreed to submit to the retrenchment of a part of their natural 
liberty, in order to enjoy the benefits of society. According to this system, 
the rights of the civil power, as well as the duties of the subject, are alike 
founded on a pact, differing from other contracts only in the nature and extent 
of its object; so that, in this case, power would emanate from God merely in a 
general sense, just as all rights and duties emanate from Him. Those writers 
who thus explain the origin of power, do. not always agree with Rousseau. The 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



299 



Contrat of the philosopher of Geneva has nothing to do with the pact spoken 
of in other authors. This is not the place to compare the doctrines of Rous- 
seau with those of other writers ; suffice it to say, that although they rely upon 
the pact, they wish, nevertheless, to establish the rights of civil power as they 
have been hitherto understood by the common consent of mankind, whilst the 
author of the Contrat Social proposes in his book the following problem, which 
he considers fundamental. I quote his own words : "To find a form of asso- 
ciation which shall defend and protect with all the common strength the person 
and property of each associate, and by which each one, being united to all, shall 
nevertheless obey only himself, and remain as free as before." 

Such is the fundamental problem, the solution of which is given in the Con- 
trat Social. This nonsense of having none but one's self to obey, making a 
contract, and remaining as free as before, needs no comment, after what the 
author himself says in the following line : " The clauses of this contract are so 
fixed by the very nature of the act, that the least modification would render 
them vain and of no effect." (Book i. chap. 6.) Rousseau's ideas on this sub- 
ject do not, therefore, agree with those of many other writers, who also have 
spoken of pacts, in their explanation of the origin of power ; the latter sought a 
theory in support of power, the former wished to destroy that which existed, 
and to throw society into a state of excitement. Through a singular idea, 
Rousseau, in his vault at the Pantheon, is represented to us with the door half 
open, and a lighted torch in his hand — an emblem, perhaps, more significant 
than has been imagined. The artist's intention was, to express the idea of 
Rousseau's enlightening the world even after his death; but it should be 
remembered, that the torch is also an emblem of the incendiary. La Harpe 
said of him : 

" Sa parole est un feu, mais un feu qui ravage." 

To return to the question, I will observe, that the doctrine of a pact is of no 
avail in accounting for the establishment of power; for it cannot even render 
legitimate either its origin or its exercise. First, an explicit pact has evidently 
never existed ; and secondly, in the formation of even the most limited society, 
such a pact never could obtain the consent of every individual member. In any 
convention for such an object, only the heads of families could take part; and 
hence, women, children, and servants might protest against it. In assenting 
to such a pact, what right would fathers have to represent the whole of their 
families ? The will of the latter, it will be said, was virtually included in that 
of their chief ; but this is the very point that wants proof. Supposition here 
is easy enough ; proof is not so easy. When you seek the origin of power in 
principles of strict right, and attempt to maintain that this is only one of those 
cases to which ordinary conditions of contracts are applicable, you are met at once 
by a very serious difficulty ; for you are obliged to have recourse to a fiction : — 
the words " implicit consent" are a mere fiction, and nothing more. Is it not evi- 
dent, that the consent of families must have been implicit, even supposing that 
of their heads to be explicit ? This explicit consent would, in fact, be impos- 
sible in the formation of any society, however limited in extent. And more- 
over, the consent of succeeding generations will be equally implicit, since it is 
impossible to be continually renewing the contract, for the purpose of consulting 
the wishes of the parties interested in its effects. Reason and history teach that 
society has never been thus organized ; our own experience tells us that it is not 
now upheld or governed by any such principles. Of what use, then, is this 
inexplicable theory ? When a theory has a practical object, the best way of 
proving its fallacy is, to prove its impracticability. 

The faculties with which civil power is, and always has been, considered to 
be invested, are of such a nature, that they cannot have proceeded from a pact 



300 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



The right of life and death can have come only from God. Man is not in pos- 
session of this right. No pact merely human could invest him with a power 
which he has not, either in relation to himself or to others. I will endeavor to 
demonstrate this point with all possible precision. If the right of taking away 
life emanates not from God, but from a pact, it must have originated in the 
following manner : every member of society must have said, expressly or tacitly, 
<l I consent to the establishment of laws to decree punishment of death for cer- 
tain crimes ; and if I should at any time transgress them, I am willing from 
that moment to forfeit my life." In this manner, every individual will have 
given up his life, supposing that the conditions specified are realized ; but no in- 
dividual having a right over his own life, the resigning of it becomes radically null. 
The joint consent of all the members of society does not obviate the radical 
and essential nullity of each one's right to give up his life ; the sum of their 
resignations is therefore equally null, and consequently incapable of producing 
any right whatever. It will be said, perhaps, that man, properly speaking, has 
no right over his own life, when an arbitrary right is implied, but that when 
he chooses to dispose of it for his own advantage, the general principle should 
be restricted. This reflection, at first sight plausible, would lead to the terrible 
consequence of authorizing suicide. In reply, it will be said, that suicide is no 
advantage to him who commits it ; but if you once grant to the individual the 
right of disposing of his life, provided he reap an advantage from so doing, you 
cannot constitute yourselves judges to decide whether or not this advantage 
exists in any particular case. According to you, he had a right to sacrifice his 
life when, for example, to satisfy his wants or his taste, he had stolen the pro- 
perty of another. That is to say, that he had a right of choice between the 
advantages of life and those of satisfying a desire : what will you answer, if he 
tell you that he prefers death to misery, to ennui, to grief, or to such and such 
misfortunes which torment him ? 

The right of life and death cannot consequently emanate from a pact. Man's 
life is not his own; he has only the use of it so long as it pleases the Creator 
to grant it him. He has not, therefore, the right of disposing of it, and all 
conventions he may make for that purpose are null. In some instances, it is 
lawful, glorious, it may be even obligatory, to deliver one's self up to certain 
death j but let us not confound ideas : man does not in that case sacrifice his 
life as being the master of it, he is a voluntary victim to the salvation of his 
country, or to the good of mankind. The warrior who scales a wall, the chari- 
table man who confronts the most dangerous contagion in visiting the sick, the 
missionary who resorts to unknown countries, who resigns himself to live in 
unhealthy climates, and who penetrates into inaccessible forests, seeking fero- 
cious hordes, do not dispose of their lives as being their own; they sacrifice them 
to a purpose great, sublime, just, and pleasing to God; for God loves virtue, 
especially heroic virtue j and it is a heroic virtue to die for one's country, to 
die in visiting the sick, or in carrying the light of truth to those seated in 
darkness and in the shadow of death. This right of life and death, with 
which civil power has ever been considered invested, may by some be con- 
sidered as founded upon the natural right of self-defence vested in society. 
Every individual, they will say, has the right of taking away the life of another 
in self-defence ; therefore society also has this right. In the chapter on Intole- 
rance, I have touched slightly upon this point, and made some reflections which 
may be repeated here. I will endeavor, nevertheless, to extend them and con- 
firm them by arguments of another kind. In the first place, I maintain that 
the right of self-defence may confer upon society that of taking away life. If 
one individual attacked by another may lawfully repel him — kill him even, if 
necessary to save his own life, it is evident that an assemblage of men have the 
same right. This appears so evident, that demonstration is superfluous. One 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



301 



society attacked by another has incontestably the right of resisting and repelling 
the attack — it is justified in making war. With more reason, therefore, might 
it resist an individual, to make war on him, or kill him. This is all perfectly 
true and obvious; and I grant that there thus exists, from the very nature 
of things, a title upon which we may found the right of inflicting capital 
punishment. 

These ideas are plausible, and seem at first sight to nullify the reasons on 
which we have supported the necessity of having recourse to God for the origin 
of this formidable right. Nevertheless, when we come to examine them 
thoroughly, they are far from satisfactory ; and it may be even said, that in the 
sense in which they are understood and applied, they are subversive of the 
acknowledged principles of society. In fact, if such a theory be admitted, if 
the right of inflicting capital punishment be made to rest exclusively on this 
principle, the ideas of penalty, chastisement, and of human justice disappear at 
once. It has always been thought that the criminal dying upon a gibbet suffers 
a penalty ; and although this terrible act is certainly a satisfaction to society, a 
means of preservation, yet the principal and predominant idea, that which sur- 
passes all others, which best justifies and exculpates society, which gives to the 
judge his august character, and stamps disgrace upon the criminal, is the idea of 
chastisement, of penalty, and of justice. All this disappears when once we can 
assert that society, in taking away life, only acts in self-defence. Such an act 
is conformable to reason, it is just, but it no longer merits the honorable title 
of an executive act of justice. A man is justified in killing an assassin ; but 
in so doing he does not administer justice, he does not execute justice, nor 
inflict a penalty. These things are very different, and of a distinct order; we 
cannot confound them without shocking the good sense of mankind. 

We will render this distinction more apparent by putting the two theories 
into the mouth of the judge : the contrast is striking. In the former case, the 
judge says to the criminal : " You are guilty ; the law decrees against you the 
penalty of death ; I, the minister of justice, apply it ; the executioner is ordered 
to inflict it." In the second, he says to him : " You have attacked society, 
which cannot exist if such attacks are tolerated. It defends itself, and for this 
reason puts you to death ; I, its agent, declare, that the time for its defending 
itself is come, and hence I give you up to the executioner." In the former 
supposition, the judge is a minister of justice, and the culprit a criminal who 
undergoes a just penalty; in the latter, the judge is an instrument of force, the 
culprit a victim. But, it will be said, the criminal is not on this account less 
criminal, and still merits the penalty which he undergoes. This is true with 
respect to the guilt, but not with respect to the penalty. The fault exists in 
the eyes of God, and also in the eyes of man, inasmuch as he possesses a con- 
science capable of judging of the morality of actions; but it does not exist in 
the eyes of man, considered as a judge. According to you, the judge does not 
punish a crime; he restrains an act injurious to society: but if you say that 
the judge inflicts a penalty, you change the nature of the question, for he then 
does something more than protect society. It follows from what we have just 
established, that the right of inflicting capital punishment can only emanate 
from God, and, consequently, if there existed no other reason for referring to 
God the origin of power, this alone would suffice. War against an invading 
nation may be explained by the right of self-defence; invasion also comes under 
the same principle ; for if it be just, it can be entered upon only with a view to 
enforce some reparation or compensation refused by the enemy. War for the 
sake of alliance enters into that class of actions which are performed for the 
assistance of a friend ; so that this phenomenon of war, with all its glory, and 
all its ravages, does not so forcibly oblige us to have recourse to a divine origin 
as this simple right of condemning a man to the gibbet. The sanction of law- 

2 A 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY- 



ful wars also undoubtedly belongs to God, for in Him exists the sanction of all 
rights and of all duties ; but there is not, in this case at least, any need of par- 
ticular authorization, as in the case of inflicting capital punishment. It is suf- 
ficient to have the general sanction which God, as the author of nature, has 
given to all natural rights and duties. 

How do we know that God has granted such an authorization to man ? There 
are three ways of answering this question. 1. The testimony of the Scriptures 
is sufficient for all Christians. 2. The right of life and death is a universal 
tradition of the human race, and does, therefore, exist in reality ; and as we 
have shown that it can have its origin only in God, it is right to suppose that 
He has communicated it to man in one way or another. 3. This right is essen- 
tial to the preservation of society ; God must, therefore, have granted it ; for if 
He wills the preservation of a being, it is evident that He will have bestowed 
upon it all things necessary for such preservation. To recapitulate what we 
have ^hitherto advanced : the Church teaches that civil power comes from God, 
and this doctrine, which agrees with the formal texts of Scripture, agrees also 
with natural reason. The Church contents herself with establishing this dogma, 
and deducing from it the immediate consequence resulting from it, viz. that 
obedience to the lawful authorities is of right divine. With regard to the mode 
in which this right divine is communicated, the Church has not determined any 
thing : the general opinion of theologians is, that society receives it from God, 
and that, from society, it is transferred, by lawful means, to the person or per- 
sons appointed to exercise it. In order that civil power may exact obedience, 
and be considered invested with this right divine, it must be legitimate j that 
is to say, the person or persons in possession of it must have acquired it by law- 
ful means, or this power must have become legitimate in their possession, by 
means acknowledged to be in accordance with right. With respect to political 
forms, the Church does not determine any thing ; but whatever be the form of 
government, the civil power must be confined within legitimate bounds, while 
the subject, on his side, is bound to obey. The fitness and legitimacy of such 
or such persons, and of such and such forms, are subjects not appertaining to 
right divine. They are particular questions, depending upon a variety of cir- 
cumstances, and to which no general theory is applicable. 

One example of private right will serve to illustrate what we have just ex- 
plained. Respect for property is of natural and divine right ; but the ownership 
of property, the respective rights of individuals to the same thing, the restric- 
tions to which property should be subject, are questions appertaining to civil 
right, which have always been resolved, and are still resolved, in various ways. 
The main object is to adhere to the protective principle of property, the indis- 
pensable basis of all social organization ; but the application of this principle is, 
and must be, subject to a variety of circumstances and events, a variety arising 
from the course of human affairs. It is the same with power. The Church, 
intrusted with the great deposit of the most important truths, keeps in this de- 
posit the truth which guaranties a divine origin to civil power, and makes the 
existence of the law an affair of right divine ; but she does not interfere in par- 
ticular cases, which are always controlled more or less by the fluctuation and 
uncertainty with which the world is agitated. When thus explained, the 
Catholic doctrine is not in the least opposed to true liberty; it consolidates 
power, and does not prejudice the questions that may arise between the go- 
vernors and the governed. No unlawful power can lay claim to the right 
divine ; for it must be legitimate to merit the application of this right. This 
legitimacy is determined and declared by the laws of each country, from which 
it follows that the law is the organ of the right divine. This right, therefore, 
only consolidates what is just; and certainly that which insures justice in the 
world cannot be said to lead to despotism, for nothing can be more opposed to 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



303 



the liberty and happiness of the people than the absence of justice and legiti- 
macy. 

Popular liberties are not endangered by the strong safeguards surrounding 
the legitimacy of the governing power. On the contrary, reason, history, and 
experience teach that all illegitimate powers are tyrannical. Their illegitimacy 
necessarily carries weakness along with it ; and it is not the strong, but the 
weak powers that oppress the people. Real tyranny consists in the person 
governing taking care of his own instead of the public interest. Now this is 
precisely what takes place when, feeling himself weak and tottering, he is forced 
to guard and protect himself. His object is then, no longer society, but him- 
self. Instead of thinking how he may benefit those over whom he rules, he 
only studies and calculates beforehand the utility he may derive from his own 
measures. I have said in another place, and I repeat, that, in looking over his- 
tory, we find continually this important truth written in letters of blood : Wo to 
the people governed by a power which is obliged to think of its own preservation ! 
A fundamental truth in political science, and which has, nevertheless, been 
lamentably overlooked in modern times. Much labor has been and is still spent 
to produce guarantees for liberty. To this end a multitude of governments 
have been overturned, and attempts have been made to weaken them all, with- 
out thinking that this was the most certain means of introducing oppression. 
What signify the veils under which despotism is concealed, and the forms by 
which it seeks to disguise its existence ? History, which has recorded the out- 
rages committed in Europe during the last century; true history, not that 
written by the authors of those outrages, by their accomplices, or by interested 
parties, will relate to posterity the injustices and crimes committed in the midst 
of civil discord by governments foreseeing their end, and feeling in themselves 
extreme weakness caused by their tyrannical conduct and the illegality of their 
origin. 

How is it, then, that such a violent warfare has been declared against doc- 
trines tending to consolidate civil authority by rendering it legitimate, and to 
prove this legitimacy by declaring that power descends from Heaven ? How 
has it been overlooked that the legitimacy of power is an essential element of 
its strength, and that this strength is the safest guarantee of true liberty ? Let 
it not be said that these are paradoxes. What is the object of societies and 
governments ? Is it not the substitution of public for private force, of the rule 
of right for the rule of the strong ? But when once you begin to undermine 
power, to make it an object of popular aversion or defiance ; when once you 
represent it to the people as their natural enemy, and vilify the sacred titles on 
which obedience due to it is founded, you attack at once the very object of the 
institution of society; and by weakening the action of public force, you provoke 
a development of private force, which is the very thing that governments were 
instituted to prevent. The secret of that mildness for which European mo- 
narchies were remarkable, consisted chiefly in their security and strength, 
founded upon the loftiness and legality of the titles of their power ; whilst you 
will find in the perils with which the thrones of the Roman emperors and East- 
ern monarchs were beset, one reason for their monstrous despotism. I do not 
hesitate to assert, and in the course of this work I shall prove more and more, 
that one cause of the evils to which Europe has been exposed during the labori- 
ous solution of the problem of the alliance between order and liberty, is the 
oblivion of Catholic doctrines on this point. These doctrines have been con- 
demned without being heard or examined into, and the enemies of the Church 
have copied each other without ever having recourse to the real sources, where 
they might easily have found out the truth. 

Protestantism, departing from the teaching of Catholicity, has been thrown 
alternately upon two opposite rocks ; wishing to establish order, it has done so 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



to the prejudice of true liberty ; and in its desire to maintain liberty, it has 
become an enemy to order. From the bosom of false reform have arisen the 
insane doctrines, which, preaching up Christian liberty, discharged the subject 
from his obedience to the lawful authorities; from the bosom of the same 
reform has likewise arisen the theory of Hobbes, which sets up despotism in the 
midst of society as a monstrous idol, to which all should be sacrificed, without 
regard for the eternal principles of morality, with no other rule than the caprice 
of him who rules, with no other bounds to his power than those marked out by 
the extent of his strength. Such is the necessary result of banishing from the 
world the authority of God. Man, left to himself, can only succeed in pro- 
ducing slavery or anarchy; the same thing under two forms; the reign of force. 

In explaining the origin of society and power, divers modern writers have 
said a great deal about a certain state of nature anterior to all societies, and 
have supposed that these societies were formed by a gradual transition from a 
barbarous to a civilized state. This erroneous doctrine lies deeper than some 
persons imagine. If we pay particular attention to the subject, we shall find 
that the erroneous ideas entertained on this subject maybe traced to the forget- 
fulness of Christian teaching. Hobbes derives every kind of right from a pact. 
According to him, when men live in a state of nature, they have a right to every 
thing ; which means, in other terms, that there is no difference between good 
and evil. From which it follows that society was organized without any regard 
to morality, and ought to be considered merely as a means to an end. Puffen- 
dorf and some others, admitting the principle of sociality, that is, deriving from 
society the rules of morality, arrive at last at the principle of Hobbes, and tram- 
ple under foot both the natural and eternal laws. Investigating the causes of 
these grave errors, I find them in the deplorable contempt which writers on phi- 
losophy and morality in modern times have so eagerly evinced for the treasures 
of light afforded us by religion. This light, religion affords us on all questions, 
fixing by its dogmas the cardinal points of all true philosophy, and offering us 
in its narrations the only thread that can guide us through the labyrinth of the 
first ages. Read the Protestant writers, compare them with the Catholic, and 
you will find a remarkable difference between them. The latter reason, give 
their minds free scope, and allow them a wide range ; but they ever leave 
untouched certain fundamental principles, and every theory which they cannot 
reconcile with these principles is inexorably rejected by them as erroneous. The 
former roam without guide or compass in the boundless space of human opinions, 
presenting to us a lively image of that pagan philosophy which had not the 
light of faith to guide its inquiries into the principles of things. Instead of 
finding a God, the Creator and Director, occupied without ceasing, like a tender 
father, with the happiness of beings whom He has drawn from nothing, this 
philosophy never discovered any thing but chaos, either in the physical or in the 
social world. This degraded and brutalized state, disguised under the name of 
nature, is in reality nothing but the chaos of society. This chaos will be found 
in a great number of modern writers who are not Catholics; and by a surprising 
coincidence, worthy of the most serious reflection, it will also be found in the 
principal writers on pagan science. 

From the moment that we lose sight of the great traditions of mankind, tra- 
ditions in which man is represented to us receiving from God himself intelli- 
gence, speech, and rules for his conduct in this life; from the moment that we 
forget the narration of Moses, that simple, sublime, and only true explanation of 
the origin of man and of society; our ideas become confused, the facts are jumbled, 
one absurdity creates another, and, like the builders of the tower of Babel, 
we suffer the just punishment of our pride. How wonderful ! that antiquity / 
which, deprived of the light of Christianity, and lost in the labyrinth of human 
inventions, had almost forgotten the primitive tradition of the origin of society, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



305 



and had recourse to the absurd transition from the barbarous to the civilized 
state, should nevertheless, whenever a society was to be formed, have invoked 
this right divine, which certain philosophers have treated with so much disdain. 
The most renowned legislators sought to establish upon Divine authority, the 
laws they were giving to the people, thus rendering a solemn homage to that 
truth logically established by Catholics, viz. that all power, to be regarded as 
legitimate and to exercise its due ascendency, must receive its titles from God. 
If you desire that the legislator should not be placed under the sad necessity of 
feigning revelations which he has never received, or bringing forward the inter- 
vention of God at every moment in an extraordinary manner in human affairs, 
establish the general principle that all power proceeds from God, that the author 
of nature is likewise the author of society, that the existence of society is a pre- 
cept imposed upon mankind for their own preservation. Let submission and 
obedience be so regulated as not to wound man's pride ; let those who rule over 
him be invested with superior authority, to which he can submit without a 
shadow of self-abasement. In short, establish the Catholic doctrine. Whatever 
be the form of government, you will then have found a solid basis on which to 
support the respect due to the authorities ; you will have placed the social edifice 
upon a foundation far more secure than human conventions. 

Examine the right divine such as I have represented it, supported by the ' 
interpretations of illustrious doctors, and I am certain that you cannot refuse to 
admit its perfect conformity to the lights of true philosophy • but if you persist 
in giving to this right a strange sense which it does not possess, pretending that 
it ought to have a different explanation, I shall insist upon one thing which you 
cannot refuse me : produce me a text of Scripture, a monument of the traditions 
acknowledged as articles of faith in the Catholic Church, a decision of the Coun- 
cils or of the Pontiffs, showing your interpretation to be well founded. Until 
you have done this,, I have a right to tell you, that, possessed with the desire of 
rendering Catholicity odious, you impute to it doctrines which it does not pro- 
fess, you attribute to it dogmas which it does not acknowledge ; that you are 
adversaries without candor or honesty, and employ weapons disallowed by the 
laws of combat. (28) 



CHAPTER LI. 

TRANSMISSION OF POWER, ACCORDING TO THE CATHOLIC DOCTORS. 

The difference of opinion concerning the mode in which God communicates 
civil power, however grave in theory, does not appear to be of great importance 
in practice. We have already observed, that, among those who assert that this 
power comes from God, some maintain that it proceeds from Him directly ', others 
indirectly. In the opinion of the former, when once the nomination of the per- 
sons appointed to exercise authority is made, society not only lays down the 
necessary conditions for the communication of power, but actually communicates 
it, having first received it from God. The latter maintain that society merely 
makes the appointment, and, by means of this act, God confers the power upon 
the person appointed. I repeat, that, in practice, the result is the same, and the 
difference therefore vanishes. Nay, even in theory, the divergence may not be 
so great as it appears at first sight. I shall endeavor to demonstrate this by 
submitting the two opinions to rigorous investigation. 

The explanation given of the origin of power by both parties may be set forth 
in the following terms : In the opinion of some, God says, " Society, for thy 
preservation and well-being, thou requirest a government; choose, therefore, 
under what form this government shall be exercised, and appoint the persons 
39 2 a 2 



306 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



who are to take charge of it j I, on my part, will confer upon them the faculties 
necessary for the fulfilment of their mission/' In the opinion of others, God 
says, " Society, for thy preservation and well-being, thou requirest a government : 
I confer upon thee the faculties necessary for the fulfilment of this object; choose 
thyself the form under which this government shall be exercised, and, appoint- 
ing the persons who are to take charge of it, transmit to them the faculties 
which I have communicated to thee." 

In order to be convinced of the identity of the results of these two formulas, 
we must examine them in their relations: 1. to the sanctity of their origin; 
2. to the rights and duties of power; 3. to the rights and duties of the subject. 
Whether Grod has communicated power to society, to be transmitted by it to the 
persons appointed to exercise it, or has merely conferred upon it the right of 
determining the form and appointing such persons, that, by means of this deter- 
mination and appointment, the rights annexed to supreme power may be directly 
communicated to the persons intrusted with the exercise of it, it follows, in either 
case, that this supreme power, wherever it exists, emanates from Grod ; and is 
not less sacred because it passes through an intermediate means appointed by 
Him. I will illustrate these ideas by a very simple and obvious example. Sup- 
pose there exists in a state some particular community, instituted by the sove- 
reign, and having no rights but those granted by him; no duties but those 
which he imposes upon it; in fine, a community indebted to the sovereign for all 
that it is and has. This community, however small it may be, will require a 
government : this government may be formed in two ways ; either the sovereign 
who has given it its laws has conferred upon it the right of governing itself, 
and of transmitting this right to the person or persons whom it may think proper 
to elect ; or he has left to the community itself the determination of the form 
and the appointment of the persons, adding that such determination and appoint- 
ment being once made, it shall be understood that, by this simple act, the sove- 
reign grants to the persons appointed the right of exercising their functions 
within lawful bounds. It is evident that the parity is complete; and now I ask, 
Is it not true that, in this case, as in the other, the faculties of him who governs 
should be considered and respected as an emanation from the sovereign ? Is it 
not true that it would be difficult to discover any difference between these two 
kinds of investiture ? In both suppositions, the community would have the 
right of determining the form and appointing the person; in both cases, he who 
governs could only obtain his powers by virtue of the previous determination 
and appointment; in neither case would there need any new manifestation on 
the part of the sovereign, that the person nominated might be understood to be 
invested with faculties corresponding to the exercise of his functions. In prac- 
tice, therefore, there would be no difference ; further, I will assert that, in theory 
even, it would be difficult to trace the point of separation between the two 
cases. 

Certainly, if we view the matter with the eye of an acute metaphysician, we 
may very easily discover this difference, by considering the moral entity which 
we call power ; not as it is in itself, and in its effects, but as an abstract being, 
passing from one hand to another, in the manner of corporeal objects. But, 
instead of examining the question for the curiosity of knowing whether this 
moral entity, before arriving at one person, has not first passed through another, 
let us first seek to verify from whence it emanates, and what are the faculties it 
confers, the rights it imposes : we shall then find that, in saying, " I confer this 
faculty upon you, transmit it to whomsoever you think proper, and in whatever 
way you think proper," the sovereign expresses no more than if he should say : 
" Such or such a faculty shall be conferred by me upon the person you wish, and 
in the manner you wish, by the simple fact of the election you have made." It 
follows hence, that whether we adopt the opinion of direct communication, or 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



307 



the contrary one, the supreme rights of hereditary monarchies, of elective mon- 
archies, and in general of all supreme powers, whatever be their forms of govern- 
ment, will not on this account be less sacred, less certainly sealed with divine 
authority. Difference in the forms of government does not in the least diminish 
the obligations of submitting to civil power, lawfully established ; so that the 
refusing of obedience to the president of a republic, in a country in which repub- 
licanism is the legal form of government, is no less a criminal resistance to the 
ordinance of God, than the refusing of the same obedience to the most absolute 
monarch. Bossuet, so strongly attached to monarchy, and writing in a country 
and at a period in which the king might exclaim, " I am die state ;" and in a 
work, in which he proposed nothing less than to offer a complete treatise on 
Politics, taken from the words of Holy Scripture ; established, nevertheless, in 
a manner the most explicit and conclusive, the truth which I have just pointed 
out. "We ought to be subject/' says he, "to the form of government estab- 
lished in our country." And he afterwards quotes these words of St. Paul in 
his Epistle to the Romans, chap. xiii. : " Let every soul be subject to higher 
powers ; for there is no power but from God ; and those that are, are ordained 
of God ; therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." 
" There is no form of government," continues Bossuet, " nor any human insti- 
tution, without its inconveniences ; so that it is necessary to remain in the state 
to which length of time has inured the people. For this reason, God takes under 
His protection all legitimate governments, in whatever form they may be estab- 
lished ; whoever undertakes to overturn them, is not only an enemy to the pub- 
lic, but also to God." (Liv. ii. prop. 12.) 

It is of little consequence whether power be communicated directly or indi- 
rectly ; the respect and obedience due to it are not in the least changed, and 
consequently the sacredness of the origin of power remains the same, whichevei 
opinion be adopted ; neither do the rights and duties of government, and those 
of the subject, remain less sacred. These rights and duties suffer no change, 
whether there be or not an intermediate means for the communication of power ; 
their nature and limits are founded upon the very object of the institution of 
society j but this object is totally independent of the mode in which God com- 
municates power to man. Against what I have advanced upon the small amount 
of difference existing between these various opinions, the authority of the theo- 
logians, whose texts I have cited in the preceding chapter, will be objected. 
" These theologians," it will be said, " certainly understood these affairs - } and 
as they placed so much importance upon the distinction here under discussion, 
they undoubtedly saw in it some great truth proper to be taken into account." 
This objection acquires the more force, when we consider that the distinction 
made upon this point by these theologians does npt proceed from a spirit of 
subtilty, as it might be suspected in the case of those scholastic theologians, 
whose writings are replete with dialectic arguments, rather than with reasoning 
founded upon Scripture, upon the apostolical traditions and other theological 
resources, from which we ought principally to take our arguments in contro- 
versies of this nature ; but the theologians whom I have quoted are certainly 
not of this class. We need only name Bellarmin, to recognise a grave and 
extremely solid author, who opposed the Protestants with Scripture, with tradi- 
tions, with the authority of the holy Fathers, the decisions of the universal 
Church and of the Sovereign Pontiffs : Bellarmin was not one of those theolo- 
gians who excited the lamentations of Melchior Cano, and of whom he said, that 
in the hour of combat against heresy, instead of wielding well-tempered weapons, 
they wielded only long reeds : arundines longas. Such was the importance 
given to this distinction, that J ames, King of England, complained loudly that 
Cardinal Bellarmin taught that the power of kings came from God only indi- 
rectly ; and the Catholic schools were so far from looking upon this distinction 



308 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



as insignificant, that they defended it against the attacks of King James ; and 
that one of their most illustrious doctors, Suarez, entered the lists to contend 
for the doctrines of Bellarmin. 

It appears, then, at first sight, that I am wrong in what I have said upon the 
slight importance of the distinction here mentioned. I believe, nevertheless, 
that the difficulty may be easily removed, and that it will suffice for this purpose 
to distinguish the different aspects under which the question presents itself. 
First of all, I will observe, that the Catholic theologians proceeded upon this 
point with admirable prudence and foresight j and truly the question, such as it 
was then proposed, comprehended more than a subtilty ; I am inclined to think 
that it included one of the most serious points of public right. In order to 
examine deeply these doctrines of Catholic theologians, and to lay hold of their 
true sense, we must fix our attention upon the tendencies which the religious 
reform of the sixteenth century communicated to European monarchy. Even 
before this reform, thrones had acquired a great deal of force and solidity, through 
the decline in the power of the feudal lords, and the development of the demo- 
cratic element. That element, which in due time was destined to acquire the 
power of which it is now possessed, was not then in sufficiently favorable circum- 
stances to exert its action on the vast scale which it embraces in our days. On 
this account, it was obliged to take refuge under the shadow of the throne — an 
emblem of order and justice elevated in the midst of society — a sort of universal 
regulator and leveller, destined gradually to destroy the extreme inequalities so 
harassing and obnoxious to the people. Thus, democracy itself, which, in after 
ages, was to overturn so many thrones, served them, at that time, as a firm sup- 
port, sheltering them from the attacks of a turbulent and formidable aristocracy, 
unwilling to be transformed into mere courtiers. There was nothing in this state 
of things very mischievous, so long as matters remained within the limits pre- 
scribed by reason and justice; but, unfortunately, good principles were exagge- 
rated, regal authority was gradually converted into an absorbent force, which 
would have concentrated in itself all other forces. European monarchy lost thus 
its true character, which consists in monarchy having just limits, even when 
these limits are not marked out and guarded by political institutions. 

Protestantism exalts to an incredible degree the pretensions of kings, by 
attacking the spiritual power of the Pope, by painting in the darkest colors the 
dangers of his temporal power, and especially by establishing the fatal doctrine, 
that the supreme civil power has ecclesiastical affairs totally under its direction; 
and by accusing of abuse, of usurpation, of unbounded ambition, the indepen- 
dence which the Church claims by virtue of the sacred canons, of the guarantee 
afforded by the civil law, of the traditions of fifteen centuries, and above all, of 
the institution of her Divine Founder. He had no need of the permission of 
any civil power to send His apostles to preach the Gospel, and to baptize in the 
name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. A glance at the his- 
tory of Europe at the epoch here mentioned will convince us of the evil con- 
sequences of such a doctrine, and show us how agreeable it must have been to 
the ears of power, which it invested with unbounded faculties, even in matters 
purely religious. This exaggeration of the rights of civil power, coinciding 
with the efforts made on the other hand to repress the pontifical authority, must 
have favored the doctrine which attempted to place the power of kings upon 
a level, in every respect, with that of Popes; and consequently, it was very 
natural that its authors should wish to establish, that sovereigns received their 
power from God, in the same manner as the Popes, without any difference what- 
ever. The doctrine of direct communication, although very susceptible, as we 
have seen, of a reasonable explanation, might involve a more extensive mean- 
ing, which would have made the people oblivious of the special and characte- 
ristic manner in which the supreme power of the Church was instituted by God 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



309 



himself. What I have just advanced cannot be considered as merely conjec- 
tural; the whole is supported by facts which cannot have been forgotten. The 
reigns of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth of England, and the usurpations and 
violence in which Protestant powers indulged against the Catholic Church, are 
a sufficient confirmation of these sad truths. But, unfortunately, even in 
countries where Catholicity remained triumphant, attempts were then, have 
since been, and still are witnessed, that show clearly enough how strong was 
the impulse given in this sense to the civil power for even now it is but too 
prone to transgress its legitimate bounds. 

The circumstances under which the two illustrious theologians above cited, 
Bellarmin and Suarez, wrote, are another reason in support of what I have just 
adduced. I have quoted remarkable passages from a work by Suarez, written 
in refutation of a publication of King James of England. This King could not 
bear the idea of Cardinal Bellarmin's having established that the power of kings 
does not emanate directly from God, but is communicated through the medium 
of society, which receives it in a direct manner. Possessed, as is well known, 
with the mania for theological debates and decisions, King James did not con- 
fine himself to simple theory; he reduced his theory to practice, and said to his 
Parliament : " that God had appointed him absolute master ; and that all pri- 
vileges which co-legislative bodies enjoyed were pure concessions proceeding 
from the bounty of kings." His courtiers, in their adulations, decreed him 
the title of the modern Solomon ; he might well, therefore, feel displeased 
with the Italian and Spanish theologians for endeavoring to humble the pride 
of his presumptuous wisdom, and restrain his despotism. If we reflect upon 
the words of Bellarmin, and especially on those of Suarez, we shall find that 
the aim of these eminent theologians was to point out the difference between 
the civil and ecclesiastical powers, with respect to the mode of their origin. 
They admit that both powers come from God ; that it is an indispensable duty 
to be subject to them ; and that to resist them is to resist the ordinance of 
God ; but not finding, either in the Scripture or in tradition, the least founda- 
tion for establishing that civil power, like that of the Sovereign Pontiffs, has 
been instituted in a special and extraordinary manner, they are anxious that 
this difference should remain obvious, and seek to avoid the introduction, in a 
point of such import, of a confusion of ideas, from which dangerous errors might 
arise. "This opinion," says Suarez, " is new, singular, and apparently in- 
vented to exalt the temporal over the spiritual power." (See above.) Hence, 
in discussing the question of the origin of civil power, they require you to bear 
in mind the influence of society. u . By means of main's counsel and election" 
says Bellarmin j thus reminding the King, that how sacred soever his authority 
might be, it had been very differently instituted from that of the Sovereign 
Pontiff. The distinction between direct and indirect communication served, in 
a particular manner, to prove the difference in question ; for this very distinction 
recalled to mind that civil power, although established by God, owed its exist- 
ence to no extraordinary measure, and could not be considered as supernatural, 
but was to be looked upon as dependent upon human and natural right, sanc- 
tioned, nevertheless, in an express manner, by right divine. 

These theologians would not, perhaps, have forcibly insisted upon this dis- 
tinction, had it not been for the efforts made by others to efface it. It was a 
matter of consequence with them to humble the pride of power, to prevent it 
from assuming, whether in respect to its origin or its rights, titles not apper- 
taining to it ; to prevent its ascribing to itself an unlawful supremacy, even in 
religious affairs, and thus causing monarchy to degenerate into a sort of Oriental 
despotism, in which the governing power is every thing, the people and their 
affairs nothing. If we weigh their words attentively, we shall find that the 
predominating idea with them was that which I have just stated. At first 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



sight, their language appears exceedingly democratical, from their frequent use 
of the words community, state, society , people ; but on examining closely their 
system of doctrine, and paying attention to the expressions they use, we per- 
ceive that they had no subversive design, and that anarchical theories never 
once entered their minds. They advocated on the one hand the rights of 
authority, whilst they protected on the other those of the subject, thus en- 
deavoring to resolve the problem which formed the continual occupation of all 
honest political writers; to limit power without destroying it, or placing it 
under too great restraint ; to protect society against the disorder of despotism, 
without rendering it at the same time refractory or turbulent. From the 
above reasoning we see that the distinction between direct and indirect com- 
munication may be of great or of little importance, according to the view we 
take of it. It is of great importance when serving to remind the civil power 
that the establishment of governments and the regulation of their forms has 
in some way been dependent upon society itself, and that no individual, no 
family, can presume upon having received from God the government of the 
people without regard to the laws of the country, as if those laws, in whatever 
form, were a free offering made by them to the people. This same distinction 
serves, in short, to establish the origin of civil power as an emanation from the 
Deity, the Author of nature, but not as instituted in an extraordinary manner, 
as something supernatural, as in the case of the supreme ecclesiastical power. 
From this latter consideration two consequences follow, one of which is of 
more importance than the other to the legitimate liberties of mankind and the 
independence of the Church. To call in the intervention, express or tacit, of 
society for the establishment of governments and the regulation of their forms, 
is to prevent the concealment of their origin under any veil of mystery; it is 
simply and plainly to define their object, consequently to explain their duties, 
as well as to point out their faculties. By these means a restraint is put upon 
the disorders and abuses of authority, which it is thenceforth clearly seen are 
not to find support in enigmatical theories. 

The independence of the Church is thus established upon a solid basis. 
Whenever the civil power attempts to offer it violence, the Church may say : 
" My authority is established directly and immediately by God in a special, ex- 
traordinary, and miraculous manner; yours likewise emanates from God, but 
through the intervention of man, through the intermediary of the laws, in the ordi- 
nary course pointed out by nature and determined by human prudence ; but 
neither man nor the civil power has a right to destroy or change what God 
Himself, deviating from the course of nature and making use of ineffable 
prodigies, has thought proper to institute." So long as the ideas here set forth 
are respected, so long as direct communication is not received in too extensive 
a sense, and care taken not to confound things whose limits so gravely affect 
religion and society, the distinction here spoken of is of little importance. We 
have seen, even, that the two opinions may be reconciled with each other. At 
all events, this distinction will have served to illustrate with what exalted views 
Catholic theologians have discussed the grave questions of public right. Guided 
by sound philosophy, and without ever losing sight of the beacon of revelation, 
they have given equal satisfaction to the desires of both schools. They have 
not fallen into the errors of either; democratical without being anarchists, 
monarchical without being base adulators. In establishing the rights of the 
people, they were not, like modern demagogues, under the necessity of destroy- 
ing religion, but made her the guardian of the rights of the people, as well as 
of those of kings. Liberty was not with them a synonyme for license and 
irreligion; in their opinion, men might be free without being rebellious or 
impious; liberty consisted in being subject to the law; and, as they could not 
conceive that law was possible without religion and without God ; in like man- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



311 



ner also they believed that liberty was not possible without God and religion. 
What reason, revelation, and history taught them has become evident to us by 
experience. Shall we be told of the dangers, grave or slight, in which theolo- 
gians could involve governments ? But people now-a-days are not led astray 
by affected and insidious declamations ; and kings well know whether the 
schools of theologians have exiled royalty, and led it to the scaffold. (29) 



CHAPTER LIL 

FREEDOM OF SPEECH UNDER THE SPANISH MONARCHY. 

Extreme doctrines neither insure the liberty of the people, nor the force 
and stability of governments ; both require truth and justice, the only founda- 
tions upon which we can build with any hope of the durability of the edifice. 
In general, maxims favorable to liberty are never carried to a higher pitch than 
on the eve of the establishment of despotism ; and it is to be feared that the 
overthrow and ruin of governments are very near when undue adulations are 
lavished upon their power. When was the power of kings more extolled than 
about the middle of last century ? Who is not aware of the exaggerations 
given to the prerogatives of royal power, when the Jesuits were to be expelled, 
and the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff impugned ? In Portugal, Spain, 
Italy, Austria, and in France, the unanimous voice of the purest and most fer- 
vent royalism was heard ; and yet what became of this great love, this lively 
zeal for monarchy, from the moment that the revolutionary storm had placed 
it in danger ? Observe what, generally speaking, has been the conduct of men 
opposed to the ecclesiastical authority; they have united themselves to dema- 
gogues for destroying, at the same time, the authority of the Church and that 
of kings ; they have forgotten their base adulations, and abandoned themselves 
to insults and violence. People and governments should never lose sight of 
this rule of conduct, so useful to men of sense, to mistrust flatterers, and to 
confide in those who warn and correct them. Let them beware whenever they 
are caressed with an affected tenderness, and their cause is maintained with 
especial warmth ; it is a sure sign of an attempt to make use of them as tools 
for the furtherance of interests very different from their own. In France, at 
certain times, monarchical zeal was carried to such an extent as to call forth, 
in the assembly of the States-General, a motion for establishing, as a sacred 
principle, that kings receive their supreme authority immediately from God : 
this was not carried into effect, but the proposal shows how ardently the cause 
of the throne was then maintained. Now, what did all this ardor mean ? 
Simply an antipathy against the Court of Rome, a dread of the extension of 
papal power ; it was an obstacle to be opposed to the phantom of a universal 
monarchy. Louis XIV., so tenacious of the royal prerogative, assuredly did 
not foresee the misfortunes of Louis XVI. ; and Charles III., in listening to the 
Count of Aranda and Campomanes, little thought that the constituent Cortes 
of Cadiz was so near. 

In the midst of their splendor, monarchs forgot one principle predominating 
in the whole modern history of Europe, viz. that social organization is an 
emanation of religion, and, consequently, that the two powers to which the 
defence and preservation of society appertain ought to co-exist in perfect 
harmony. 

The power of the Church cannot be diminished without injury to the civil 
power ; he who sows schism will reap rebellion. During the last three centu- 
ries the most liberal and popular doctrines upon the origin of power have been 
circulated amongst us. What did it matter to the Spanish monarchy, since 



312 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



those very persons who advocated these doctrines were the first to condemn 
resistance to the lawful authorities, to inculcate the obligation of obedience to 
them, and to establish in all hearts, respect, love, and veneration for the sove- 
reign ? The disturbances of our epoch, and the dangers constantly besetting 
thrones, are not exactly attributable to the propagation of doctrines more or 
less democratical, but to the absence of moral and religious principles. What 
will be gained by asserting that power comes from God, if people believe not 
in God? Point out the sacred character of the duty of obedience, and what 
effect will it produce upon those who admit not the existence of moral order, 
and to whom duty is merely a chimerical idea ? Suppose, on the contrary, 
that you have to deal with men penetrated with moral and religious principles, 
who bow to the will of God, and believe themselves bound to submit to it. bo 
soon as it is manifested to them. "What does it matter then whether civil 
power proceeds from God directly or indirectly? it is enough to convince them, 
in one way or another, that, whatever be its origin, God approves of it, and 
wills that it should be obeyed ; they will immediately submit with pleasure, 
for they will see in this submission the accomplishment of a duty. 

These considerations serve to explain the reason why certain doctrines appear 
more dangerous now than formerly : incredulity and immorality give them 
perverse interpretations, and apply them so as to create nothing but excesses 
and disorders. From the manner in which the despotism of Philip II. and his 
successors is now spoken of, we might be led to suppose that in their time no 
other doctrines than those in favor of the most rigid absolutism could be cir- 
culated ; and yet we find that there were circulated, without the least apprehen- 
sion on the part of power, works maintaining theories which, even in our days, 
would be esteemed too bold. Is it not, therefore, remarkable, that the famous 
book of Father Mariana, intituled De Rege et Regis institutione, which was 
burned at Paris by the hand of the public executioner, had been published in 
Spain eleven years before, without the least obstacle to its publication, either 
on the part of the ecclesiastical or civil authority? Mariana undertook his task 
at the instigation and request of D. Garcia de Loaisa, tutor to Philip III., and 
subsequently Bishop of Toledo ; so that the work, strange to say, was intended 
for the instruction of the heir-apparent. Xever was more freedom used in 
speaking to kings ; never was tyranny condemned in a louder voice ; never 
were more popular doctrines proclaimed ; and the work was, nevertheless, 
published at Toledo, in 1599, in the printing-office of Pedro Rodrigo, printer to 
the king, with the approbation of P. Fr. Pedro de Ona, provincial of the Mer- 
cenaries of Madrid, with the permission of Stephen Hojeda, visitor of the 
Society of Jesus in the province of Toledo, under the generalship of Claude 
Aquaviva; and, what is still more forcible, with the royal sanction, and a 
dedication to the king himself. We should also observe, that Mariana was not 
satisfied with this dedication placed at the commencement of the book, but he 
makes the very title itself serve to show to whom it was addressed : De Rege 
et Regis institutione. Libri 3, ad Philippum 3, ffisj^anice Regem Catholicum ; 
and, as if this were not sufficient, in dedicating his Spanish version of the His- 
tory of Spain to Philip III., he says to him: "I last year dedicated to your 
majesty a work of my own composition, upon the virtues which ought to exist 
in a good king, my desire being that all princes should read it carefully and 
understand it." "El ano pasado presente a V. M. un libro que compuse de las 
virtudes que debe tener un buen Rey, que deseo lean y entiendan todos los 
principes con cuidado." 

We will pass over his doctrine upon tyrannicide, which was the principal 
cause of its condemnation in France, where there existed, without doubt, mo- 
tives of alarm, since kings were perishing there by the hand of the assassin. 
On examining his theory upon power, we find it as popular and liberal as those 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



313 



of modern democrats could be. Mariana ventures to express his opinions without 
evasion or disguise. For example, drawing a parallel between the king and 
the tyrant, he says : " The king exercises with great moderation the power 

which he has received from his subjects Hence, he does not, like the 

tyrant, oppress his subjects as slaves, but governs them as free men; and having 
received his power from the people, he takes particular care that during his 
life, the people shall voluntarily yield him submission." " Rex quam a sub- 

ditis accepit potestatem singulari modestia exercet Sic fit, ut subditis non 

tanquam servis dominetur, quod faciunt tyranni, sed tanquam liberis praesit, et 
qui a populo potestatem accepit, id in primis curaa habet ut per totam vitam 
volentibus imperet." (Lib. 1, cap. 4, p. 57.) This was said in Spain by a 
simple religious, was sanctioned by his superiors, and attentively listened to by 
kings. To what grave reflections does this simple fact lead us ! Where is that 
strict and indissoluble alliance which the enemies of the Church have imagined 
to exist between her dogmas and those of slavery? If such expressions as the 
above were tolerated in a country in which Catholicity predominated so exten- 
sively, how can it be maintained that such a religion tends to enslave the 
human race, and that its doctrines are favorable to despotism ? Nothing would 
be easier than to fill whole volumes with remarkable passages of our writers, 
both lay and clerical, showing the extreme liberty granted upon this point, as 
well by the Church as by the civil government. "What absolute monarch in 
Europe would approve of one of his high functionaries expressing the origin 
of power after the manner of our immortal Saavedra ? " It is from the centre 
of justice," says he, "that the circumference of the crown has been drawn. The 
latter would not be necessary, if we could dispense with the former. 

Hac una reges olim sunt fine creati, 
Dicere jus populis, injustaque tollere facta. 

In the first age, there was no necessity for penalties, because the law did not 
take cognisance of transgressions ; rewards were equally unnecessary, because 
integrity and honor were loved for their own sakes. But vice, growing with 
the age of the world, intimidated virtue ; simple and confiding, the latter, till 
then, dwelt in the country. Equality was despised, modesty and chastity lost, 
ambition and force introduced, and after them domination. Prudence, forced 
by necessity, and aroused by the light of nature, reduced men to a state of civil 
society, to exercise therein those virtues to which reason inclines them. By 
means of the articulate voice with which nature had gifted them, they could 
explain to each other their mutual thoughts, manifest to each other their sen- 
timents, and explain their wants, instruct, counsel, and protect each other. 
Society once formed, a power was created by common consent, in the wliole of this 
community, enlightened by the law of nature, for preserving its different parts, for 
maintaining them in justice and peace, by punishing vice and rewarding virtue. 
As this power could not remain spread through the whole body of the people, on 
account of the confusion which would have arisen from the resolutions and their 
execution, and as it was absolutely necessary that there should be some to com- 
mand, and others to obey, one portion divested itself of this power, and vested it 
in one member, or in a small, or in a great, number of members, that is to say, 
in one of the three forms of every state government—monarchy, aristocracy, or 
democracy. Monarchy was the first ; because men selected for their govern- 
ment, out of their families, and afterwards even from among the whole people, 
some one who excelled the rest in goodness : his greatness increasing, they 
honored his hand with the sceptre, and encircled his head with a crown as an 
emblem of majesty, and as a badge of the supreme power which they had con- 
ferred upon him. This power, however, consists chiefly in that justice which 
ought to maintain the people in peace ; this justice failing, the order of the state 
40 2B 



314 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



fa ils, and the office of king ceases, as was the case in Castile, when the govern- 
ment by judges was substituted for that by kings, on account of the injustice 
of D. Ordona and of D. Fruela." ( Character of a Christian Prince's Policy, set 
forth in a hundred Devices, by D. Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, Knight of the 
Order of St. James, Member of his Majesty's Supreme Council for the Indies, 
device 22.) 

The words people, pact, consent, have ended in becoming the dread of men of 
sound ideas and upright intentions, on account of the deplorable abuses which 
have been made of them in those immoral schools which ought rather to be 
qualified with the epithet of irreligious than with that of democratical. No, it 
was not the desire of ameliorating the condition of the people which led them 
to overthrow the world, by overturning thrones and shedding torrents of blood 
in civil discord ; the real cause was a blind rage for reducing to ashes the work 
of ages, by especially attacking religion, the main support of every thing wise, 
just, and salutary, that European civilization had acquired. And, in fact, have 
we not seen impious schools, whilst boasting of their liberty, bend under the 
hand of despotism, whenever they thought it useful to their designs ? Previous 
to the French Revolution, were they not the basest adulators of kings, whose 
prerogatives they extended immeasurably, with the intention of making regal 
power the means of oppressing the Church ? After the revolutionary epoch, 
did we not see them assembled round Napoleon and even yet, do they not 
almost deify him ? And why ? Because Napoleon was revolution personified, 
the representative and executor of the new ideas sought to be substituted for 
the old ones. In the same manner Protestantism extols its Queen Elizabeth ; 
because it was she who placed the Establishment upon a solid foundation. 
Revolutionary doctrines, besides the evils they inflict upon society, produce 
indirectly another effect, which may, at first sight, appear salutary, but which, 
in reality, is not so. They occasion dangerous reactions in the order of events, 
and check the progress of knowledge, by narrowing and debasing men's ideas, 
leading them to condemn as erroneous and pernicious, or to view with mistrust, 
principles which would previously have been looked upon as sound, or that 
would, at all events, have been regarded as mere harmless errors. The rea- 
son of all this is, simply, that liberty has no worse enemy than licentiousness. 

In support of this last observation, it may be well to show, that the most 
rigorous doctrines in political matters have originated in countries in which 
anarchy had made the greatest ravages, and precisely at the time when the evil, 
still present, or very recent, was most keenly felt. The religious revolution of 
the sixteenth century, and the political commotions consequent upon it, were 
principally felt in the north of Europe ; the south, and especially Italy and 
Spain, were almost entirely preserved from them. Now, these last two coun- 
tries are precisely those in which the dignities and prerogatives of civil power 
have been the least exaggerated, as well as those in which they were not dis- 
paraged in theory, and were respected in practice. Of all modern nations, 
England was the first in which a revolution, properly so called, was realized ; 
for I do not consider as such the insurrection of the German peasantry, which, 
in spite of the terrible catastrophe which it caused, never effected any change in 
the state of society ; or that of the United Provinces, which may be considered 
a war of independence. Now, it was precisely in England that the most erro- 
neous doctrines. in favor of the supreme authority of civil power appeared. 
Hobbes, who, whilst he refused to allow the rights of the Creator, attributed 
unbounded authority to the monarchs of the earth, lived at the most agitated 
and turbulent epoch in the annals of Great Britain. He was born in 1588, and 
died in 1679. 

In Spain, where the impious and anarchical doctrines, which had troubled 
Europe since the schism of Luther, did not penetrate until the latter part of the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



315 



eighteenth century, we have seen that the greatest license of expression was 
permitted upon the most important points of public right, and that doctrines 
were maintained which, in any other country, would have been looked upon as 
dangerous. Error gave rise to exaggeration; the rights of monarchs were 
never so much extolled as under the reign of Charles III.; that is, at the time 
when the modern epoch was inaugurated among us. 

Religion, which predominated in all consciences, maintained them in the obe- 
dience due to the sovereign, without there being any need of giving this obedi- 
ence any extraordinary titles, when its real ones were sufficient, as they cer- 
tainly were. For him who knows that G-od has prescribed obedience to lawful 
authority, it matters little whether this authority emanate from Heaven directly 
or indirectly, or whether society has more or less taken part in the determina- 
tion of political forms, or in the election of the persons or families who are to 
exercise the supreme command. Hence we find that in Spain, although the 
words people, consent, pacts, were spoken of, monarchs were held in the most 
profound veneration, so much so that modern history does not mention a single 
attempt upon their persons. Popular tumults were also of rare occurrence ; and 
those which did happen are not attributable to either of the two above-men- 
tioned doctrines. How does it happen that, at the end of the sixteenth century, 
the Council of Castile was not alarmed at the bold principles of Mariana, in his 
book Be Rege et Regis institutione, whilst those of the Abbe Spedalieri, at the 
end of the eighteenth century, were such a terror to it ? The reason of this lies 
not so much in the contents of the works, as in the epoch of their publication. 
The former appeared at a time when the Spanish nation, confirmed in religious 
and moral principles, might be compared to those robust constitutions capable 
of bearing food difficult of digestion. The latter was introduced among us when 
the doctrines and deeds of the French Revolution were shaking all the thrones 
of Europe, and when the propagandism of Paris was beginning to pervert us by 
its emissaries and books. In a nation in which reason and virtue prevail, in 
which evil passions are never excited, in which the well-being and prosperity 
of the country are the only aim of every citizen, the most popular and liberal 
forms of government may exist without danger ; for in such a nation numerous 
assemblies produce no disorder, merit is not obscured by intrigue, nor are 
worthless persons raised to the government, and the names of public liberty and 
felicity do not serve as means to raise the fortunes or satisfy the ambition of 
individuals. So also in a country in which religion and morality rule in every 
breast, in which duty is not looked upon as an empty word, in which it is con- 
sidered really criminal to disturb the tranquillity of the state, to revolt against 
the lawful authorities : in such a country, I say, it is less dangerous to discuss, 
with more or less freedom, questions arising from theories on the formation 
of society and the origin of the civil power, and to establish principles favorable 
to popular rights. But when these conditions do not exist, it is of little use to 
proclaim rigorous doctrines. To abstain from pronouncing the name of people, 
as a sacrilegious word, is a useless precaution. How can it be expected, that 
he who respects not Divine Majesty, should respect human ? The conservative 
schools of our age, proposing to place a restraint upon the revolutionary torrent, 
and to tranquillize agitated nations, have almost always been infected with a 
certain failing, which consists in forgetting the truth which I have just noticed: 
royal majesty, authority of the government, supremacy of the law, parliamentary 
sovereignty, respect for established forms, and order : such are the terms they 
are constantly making use of. This is their palladium of society ; and they 
condemn with all their might the state, insubordination , disobedience to the laws, 
insurrection, riot, anarchy ; but they forget that these doctrines will not suffice, 
unless there be some fixed point to which the first link of the chain may be 
riveted: These schools, generally speaking, originate in the bosom of revolu- 



316 PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 

tion , they are directed by men who have figured in revolutions, who have con- 
tributed to prepare them, who have given them their force, and who, in order 
to attain the object of their ardent desires, feared not to ruin the edifice at its 
foundation, by diminishing the ascendency of religion and opening the way to 
moral relaxation. Hence they become powerless when prudence, or their own 
interests, bid them say, "We have gone far enough;" and, hurried on like the 
rest by the furious whirlwind, they have neither the means of stopping the 
movement nor of giving it a proper direction. 

We are continually hearing the Contrat Social of Rousseau condemned on 
account of its anarchical doctrines, whilst at the same time doctrines are circu- 
lated tending visibly to weaken religion. Can we possibly believe that the Con- 
trat Social has alone caused all the commotions of Europe ? It has doubtless 
produced serious evils, but still more serious ones have been caused by that irre- 
ligion which so deeply undermines the foundations of society, which loosens 
family bonds, and delivers up the individual to the caprice of his passions, with 
no other restraint or guide than the promptings of his own low egotism. Men 
of upright and reflecting minds begin to penetrate these truths. We find, never- 
theless, in the political sphere, this error, which attributes to the action of civil 
government sufiicient creative power to form, organize, and preserve society, 
independently of all moral and religious influences. It is of little consequence 
what be maintained in theory, if this error be acted upon in practice ; and what 
avails the proclaiming of certain sound principles, if our conduct is not guided 
by them ? These philosophico-political schools, which are desirous of ruling 
the destinies of the world, proceed in a way diametrically opposite to that of 
Christianity. The latter, whose principal object was heaven, did not, however, 
neglect the happiness of man upon earth; it addressed itself directly to the 
understanding and the heart, considering that the community is regulated by the 
conduct of individuals, and that, in order to have a well-regulated society, it was 
necessary to have good citizens. To proclaim certain political principles, to 
institute particular forms — such ' is the panacea of some schools, who deem it 
possible to govern society without exercising a due influence over the intelli- 
gence and heart of man ; reason and experience agree in teaching us what we 
may expect from such a system. 

Profoundly to impress the minds of men with religion and morality, — this is 
the first step towards the prevention of revolutions and disorganization. When 
these sacred objects have acquired their full influence over the hearts of men, 
there is no longer any thing to be apprehended from a greater or less latitude 
in political opinions. What confidence can a government repose in a man pro- 
fessing highly monarchical opinions, if he join impiety to them ? Will he who 
refuses to give to God his rights, respect those of temporal kings ? " The first 
thing/' says Seneca, " is the worship of the gods, and faith in their existence ; 
we are next to acknowledge their majesty, and bounty, without which there is 
no majesty." " Primum est Deorum cultus, Deos credere ; deinde reddere illis 
majestatem suam, reddere bonitatem, sine qua nulla majestas est." (Seneca, 
Epist. 95.) Observe how Cicero, the first orator and perhaps the greatest phi- 
losopher of Rome, expresses himself : " It is necessary/' says he, " that the 
citizens should be first persuaded of the existence of gods, the directors and 
rulers of all things, in whose hands are all events, who are ever conferring on 
mankind immense benefits, who search the heart of man, who see his actions, 
the spirit of piety which he carries into the practice of religion, and who distin- 
guish the life of the pious from that of the ungodly man." " Sit igitur jam hoc 
a principio persuasum civibus, dominos esse omnium rerum, ac moderatores 
deos; eaque quag gerantur, eorum geri ditione ac numine, eosdemque optime 
de genere hominum mereri, et qualis quisque sit, quid agat, quid inde admittat, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



317 



qua mente, qua pietate colat religiones intueri : piorumque et impiorum habere 
rationem." (Cic. de Nat. Deor. 2.) 

These truths should be profoundly impressed upon the mind : the evils of 
society do not principally emanate from political ideas or systems ; the root of 
the evil lies in religion ; and if a check is not put upon irreligion, it is vain to 
proclaim the most rigid monarchical principles. Hobbes did certainly flatter 
kings a little more than Bellarmin ; and yet, when these two writers are com- 
pared, what sensible monarch would not prefer as a subject the learned and 
pious controvertist ? (30) 



CHAPTER MIL 

ON THE FACULTIES OF THE CIVIL POWER. 

Having shown that the Catholic doctrine upon the origin of the civil power 
does not include any thing but what is perfectly reasonable and reconcilable 
with the true interests of the people, let us discuss the second of the proposed 
questions. Let us inquire into the nature of the faculties of this power, and 
see whether under this aspect the Church teaches any thing favorable to despot- 
ism — to that oppression of which she is so calumniously accused of being a sup- 
porter. We invite our opponents to demonstrate the contrary, fully confident 
that they will find it more difficult to succeed in so doing, than to accumulate 
vague accusations, which serve only to lead too confiding minds astray. To 
sustain these charges properly, recourse should be had to texts of Scripture, to 
tradition, to the decisions of Councils, or to those of Supreme Pontiffs, to pas- 
sages of the Fathers ; and it should be shown that these immoderately extend 
the bounds of power, with the design of placing undue restraint upon the liberty 
of the people, or of destroying it. But it will be said, if the sources retained 
their purity, the streams have been polluted by commentators ; in other terms, 
theologians of latter ages, becoming the adulators of civil power, have power- 
fully labored to extend its faculties, and, consequently, to establish despotism. 
As many persons too readily claim the right of criticizing the doctors of what 
is termed the period of decline, flippantly censuring those illustrious men, with- 
out having ever taken the trouble to open their works, it is necessary for us to 
enter into some details on this subject, and to dispel prejudices and errors which 
are seriously injurious to religion, and not less so to science. 

The declamations and invectives of Protestants have induced certain minds to 
imagine that every idea of liberty would have disappeared from the heart of 
Europe, had it not been for the timely intervention of the pretended Reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century. According to this idea, Catholic theologians are 
represented as a crowd of ignorant monks, capable only of writing, in bad lan- 
guage and in still worse style, a heap of nonsense, the ultimate and only aim of 
which was to exalt the authority of Popes and kings, and to support intellectual 
and political oppression, obscurantism, and tyranny. That a portion should 
become the victim of illusion in matters the investigation of which is difficult 
and arduous ; that the reader should suffer himself to be deceived by a writer on 
whose word he must either rely or remain in complete ignorance, — as, for example, 
in the description of a country or a phenomenon examined only by the narrator, 
— is nothing strange ; but that any one should adhere to errors which a few 
moments spent in the most obscure library would eradicate, that the authors of 
the brilliant volumes of Paris should have the privilege of disfiguring with im- 
punity the opinions of a writer lying covered with dust and forgotten in the 
same library, and perhaps on the same shelf upon which the former glitter; that 
the reader should peruse with avidity the glossy pages of the newly-published 

2b 2 



318 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



work, filling his mind with the writer's notions, without even so much as putting 
forth his hand to the voluminous tome within his reach, and which needs only 
to be opened to furnish at every page a refutation of the censures in which 
levity, if not bad faith, is so ready to indulge ; is difficult to be conceived or 
excused in any man professing to be a lover of science, and a conscientious 
investigator of truth. A great number of writers would assuredly not be so 
ready and free to speak of what they have never studied, to analyze books which 
they have never read, if they did not reckon upon the docility and levity of 
their readers; they would certainly refrain from pronouncing magisterially upon 
an opinion, a system, or a school, in fine, upon the labors of many ages, from 
deciding the gravest questions by a sally of wit, if they found that the reader, 
seized in his turn with distrust, and particularly with the skepticism of the period, 
would not place implicit faith in their assertions, but would take the trouble to 
confront them with the facts to which they relate. 

Our ancestors did not consider themselves justified, I will not say in making 
an assertion, but even a single allusion, without giving careful references to the 
source of their information. Their delicacy on this point was carried to excess ; 
but we have done wrong by going to the opposite extreme, and judging that we 
might dispense with all formality, even in the most important matters which 
imperiously demand the testimony of facts. But the opinions of ancient writers 
are facts, facts averred in their writings. By judging them hastily, without 
entering into details, without imposing upon ourselves the obligation of quoting 
authorities, we incur the suspicion of falsifying history, and history, I repeat, 
the most precious, that of the human mind. The levity observable in certain 
writers proceeds, in a great measure, from the character which science has 
assumed in our days. There is no longer any particular science, but only a 
general one, embracing them all, and including in its immense circle all branches 
of knowledge. Consequently, minds of ordinary capacity are obliged to remain 
satisfied with vague notions, unfortunately only serving to stimulate abstraction 
and universality. Never was knowledge so much generalized as now, and never 
was it more difficult to obtain deserved renown for wisdom. In every aspirant 
to scientific excellence the state of science requires a laborious activity in the 
acquisition of knowledge, profound reflection to regulate and direct it, a com- 
prehensive and penetrating view to simplify and concentrate it, an intellect of a 
high order, elevating him to the regions in which science has established her 
abode. How many men are endowed with these qualifications ? But let us 
revert to the subject. 

Catholic theologians are so far from favoring despotism, that I doubt much 
whether it would be possible to find better books than theirs for enabling us to 
form clear and just ideas of the faculties of power. I will even add that, gene- 
rally speaking, they incline, in a very remarkable manner, to the development 
of true liberty. The great type of theological schools, the model to the con- 
templation of which they have constantly turned during several centuries, are 
the works of St. Thomas of Aquin ) and we may with full confidence defy our 
opponents to find us a jurist or philosopher who expounds with more lucidity, 
wisdom, noble independence, and generous dignity, the principles to which civil 
power ought to adhere. His Treatise upon Laws is immortal, and whoever has 
fully comprehended it has no further information to acquire respecting the great 
principles which ought to guide the legislator. You think lightly of past times, 
imagining that till now nothing was known of politics or public right ; and in 
your imagination you invent an incestuous alliance between religion and despot- 
. ism, fancying you have discovered in the distant obscurity of the cloister, the 
plot contrived by this infamous pact. But have you heard the opinion of a reli- 
gious of the thirteenth century upon the nature of law ? You already imagine 
that you see in his ideas force dominating over all, and constantly invoking 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



319 



religion the better to disguise his rude snares with a few falsehoods. Learn, 
then, that you could not yourself have given a milder definition of law. You 
would never have thought, as he has done, of excluding from it the idea of force ; 
you could never have conceived how, in so few words, he has managed to say 
all, and with such exactitude, such lucidity, in terms so favorable to the true 
liberty of the people and to the dignity of man. The definition here spoken of 
being the summary of his entire doctrine, and at the same time the guide which 
has directed theologians, may be considered as an abridgment of theological 
doctrines in their relation to the faculties of civil power. It presents to us at a 
single glance what were, in this point of view, the predominating principles 
among Catholics. 

Civil power acts upon society through the medium of the law ; and, accord- 
ing to St. Thomas, the law is, " a rule dictated by reason, the aim of ivhich is 
the public good, and promulgated by him who has the care of society." "Quae- 
dam rationis ordinatio ad bonum commune, et ab eo qui curam communitatis 
habet promulgata." (1, 2, quaest. 90, art. 4.) A rule dictated by reason, 
rationis ordinatio. Here by one word despotism and force are banished ; here 
is the principle that the law is not a pure effect of the will. The celebrated 
maxim, Quod principi placuit legis habet vigor em, is here corrected. Although 
capable of a reasonable and just interpretation, this maxim was, nevertheless, 
incorrect, and inclined to flattery. A celebrated writer of our days has devoted 
numerous pages to proving that legitimacy has not its origin in the will of man, 
but in reason, inferring from this that what ought to command men is not in 
the will of another man, but reason. With much less pomp, but not less solidity 
and conciseness, the holy Doctor expresses this idea in the words above quoted, 
rationis ordinatio. On reflection we find that despotism, arbitrary power, and 
tyranny are nothing else than the absence of reason in power, the domination 
of the will. When reason commands, there is legitimacy, justice, liberty ; 
when the will alone commands, there is illegitimacy, injustice, despotism. Hence 
the fundamental idea of all law is, that it be in accordance with reason, that it 
be an emanation from reason, an application of reason to society; and the will, 
in giving its sanction to law and carrying it into execution, should be merely 
anxiliary to reason, its instrument, its arm. 

It is evident that, without the action of the will, there is no law ; for acts of 
pure reason, without the co-operation of the will, are thoughts and not com- 
mands. They enlighten the mind, but do not produce action. It is, therefore, 
impossible to conceive the existence of law without the combined operation of 
the will and of reason. But this is no reason why we should not consider all 
law to have a rational foundation and to be conformable to reason, that it may 
merit the name of law. These observations have not escaped the penetration 
of the holy Doctor; he examines them, and dispels the error of believing that 
the law consists in the mere will of the prince. He expresses himself as fol- 
lows: " Reason receives its motive power from the will, as we have observed 
above (quaest. 17, art. 1 ;) for whilst the will seeks the end, reason enjoins the 
means of its attainment; but the will, to have the force of law, must be guided 
by reason. In this sense only can the will of a sovereign be said to have the 
force of law ; in any other sense it would not be law, but injustice." " Ratio 
habet vim movendi a voluntate, ut supra dictum est. (Quaest. 17, art. 1.) Ex 
hoc enim quod aliquis vult finem, ratio imperat de his quae sunt ad finem, sed 
voluntas de his quae imperantur, ad hoc quod legis rationem habeat, oportet quod 
sit aliqua ratione regulata; et hoc modo intelligitur quod voluntas principis 
habet vigorem legis ; alioquin voluntas principis magis esset iniquitas quam lex." 
(Quaest. 90, art. 1.) 

These doctrines of St. Thomas are the same as those of all theologians. Im- 
partiality and good sense will tell us whether they are favorable to absolutism 



320 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



and despotism, whether they are in any way opposed to true liberty, whether 
they are not eminently conformable to the dignity of man. These doctrines 
form the most explicit and conclusive proclamation of the limits of civil power, 
and they certainly have in this respect more weight than the declarations of 
imprescriptible rights. That which humbles man, wounds in him the 
feeling of a just independence, and introduces despotism into the world, is the 
will of man commanding and exacting submission merely because it is his will ; 
but by submitting to reason, being guided by her dictates, we are not degraded ; 
on the contrary, we are elevated, we are dignified, for we live conformably to 
eternal order and to the divine will. The obligation of being subject to the 
law does not originate in the will of another, but in reason. Theologians, how- 
ever, have not considered the latter of itself sufficient to command. They de- 
rive the sanction of the law from a higher source ; when the conscience of man 
was to be acted upon, to be bound by duty, they could find nothing in the 
sphere of created things capable of attaining so high an object. " Human 
laws, if they are just," says the holy Doctor, " are binding in conscience, and 
they derive their power from the eternal law, from which they are formed, ac- 
cording to what is said in Proverbs, chap, viii., ( By Me kings reign, and the 
lawgivers decree just things/ " " Si quidein justae sunt, habent vim obligandi 
in foro conscientiae a lege eterna, a qua derivantur, secundum illud Proverb, 
cap. 8, per me reges regnant, et legum conditores justa decernunt." (1, 2, 
quaest. 96, art. 3.) This proves, according to St. Thomas, that just law is 
derived not exactly from human reason, but from the eternal law ; and that 
this is what makes it binding upon conscience. 

This is doubtless more philosophical than to seek the obligatory force of laws 
in private reason, in pacts, or in the general will. In this manner the titles, 
the true titles of humanity are explained, a reasonabie limit is placed upon 
civil power, and obedience is easily obtained ; the rights and duties of govern- 
ments, as well as those of subjects, are established upon solid and indestructible 
foundations; the nature of power, society, command, and obedience become 
perfectly comprehensible. It is no longer the will of one man predominating 
over that of his fellow-man ; it is not his reason, but reason emanating from 
God, or more properly speaking the reason of God, the eternal law, God Him- 
self. A sublime theory, in which power finds its rights, its duties, its force, 
its authority, its prestige, and in which society possesses its safest guarantee of 
order, well-being, and true liberty; a theory which divests authority of the 
will of man, since it changes this will into an instrument of the eternal law, 
into a divine ministry, whose aim is the public good, ad bonum commune. This, 
according to St. Thomas, is also one of the essential conditions of law. It has 
been asked, Whether kings are made for the people, or the people for kings ? 
Such a question could only arise from a want of due reflection upon the nature 
of society, its object, and its origin, and upon the intent of power. The con- 
cise expression above cited, ad bonum commune, is a fitting answer to this 
question. " Laws," says the holy Doctor, " may be unjust in two ways; either 
by being opposed to the commonweal, or by having an improper aim, as when 
a government imposes upon its subjects onerous laws, which do not serve the 
common interest, but rather cupidity and ambition. Such laws are rather in- 
justices than laws." "Injustae autem sunt leges dupliciter; uno modo per 
contrarietatem ad bonum commune, e contrario praedictis ; vel ex fine, sicut cum 
aliquis praesidens leges imponit, onerosas subditis non pertinentes ad utilitatem 

communem, sed magis ad propriam cupiditatem vel gloriam : Et 

hujusmodi magis sunt violentiae quam leges." (1, 2, q. 96, art. 4.) From 
this doctrine it follows, that command must be exercised for the well-being of 
all; and, failing in this condition, it is unjust: governors are invested with it 
only for the advantage of the governed. Kings are not, as some philosophers, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



321 



regardless of the most palpable inconsistencies, have absurdly maintained, the 
slaves of their people ; neither is their power a simple commission without any 
real authority, and continually subject to the caprice of their people; but, at 
the same time, the people are not the property of their kings. The latter can, 
by no means, consider their subjects as slaves, to be disposed of at their free- 
will : governments are not, by any means, the absolute arbiters of the lives and 
fortunes of the governed ; they are bound to watch over them, not as a master 
over slaves from whom he derives profit, but as a father over the son whom he 
loves and whose happiness he has at heart. 

" The kingdom is not made for the king, but the king for the kingdom/' says 
the holy Doctor, from whom I continue to quote ; and, in a style remarkable 
for its force and freedom, he continues as follows : " for God has constituted 
kings to rule and govern, and to secure to every one the possession of his 
rights ; such is the aim of their institution ; but if kings, turning things to their 
own profit, should act otherwise, they are no longer kings, but tyrants/' (JD. 
Th. de Reg. Princ. cap. 11.) From this doctrine it is evident, that the people 
are not made for kings; that the subject is not made for the ruler; but that all 
governments have been established for the good of society, and that this alone 
should be the compass to guide those who are in command, whatever be the 
form of government. From the president of the most insignificant republic to 
the most powerful monarch, none are exempt from this law ; for it is a law an- 
terior to society, — a law which presided at the formation of society, and which 
is superior to human law, inasmuch as it emanates from the Author of all so- 
ciety, from the source of all law. 

No, the people are not made for kings ; kings are all appointed for the good 
of the people : and if this object is not accomplished, the government is use- 
less; and this affects the republic as well as the monarchy. To flatter kings 
with opposite maxims is to ruin them. Religion has not, at any time, done 
this ; this was not the language of those illustrious men who, clothed in the 
sacerdotal habit, delivered to the powerful ones of the earth the messages of 
Heaven. " Kings, princes, magistrates," cries out the venerable Palafox, " all 
jurisdiction is ordained by God for the preservation of His people, not for their 
destruction ; for defence, not for offence; for man's right, and not for his injury. 
They who maintain that kings can do as they please, and who establish their 
power upon their will, open the way to tyranny. Those who maintain that 
kings have power to do as they ought, and what is necessary for the preserva- 
tion of their subjects and of their crowns, for the exaltation of faith and reli- 
gion, for the just -and right administration of justice, the preservation of peace 
and the support of just war, for the due and becoming eclat of regal dignity, 
the honorable maintenance of their houses and families, speak the truth with- 
out flattery, throw open the gates to justice, and to magnanimous and royal 
virtues." (Hist. Real. Sagrada, lib. i. cap. 11.) When Louis XIV. said, "I 
am the state," he had not learned this maxim either from Bossuet, Bourdaloue, 
or Masillon. Pride, exalted by so much grandeur and power, and infatuated 
by base adulators, was here speaking by his mouth. How unsearchable are 
the ways of Providence ! The corpse of this man, who said he was the state, 
was insulted at his funeral; and, before the lapse of a century, his grandson 
suffered death on the scaffold ! Thus the crimes of families are expiated, as 
well as those of nations. When the measure of His indignation is filled up, 
the Lord reminds terrified man that the God of mercy is likewise a God of 
vengeance, and that, as He opened upon the world the floodgates of heaven, so 
also He lets loose upon kings and nations the tempests of revolution. When 
once the rights and duties of power are founded upon a base as solid as that of 
their divine origin, when once they become established by a rule as exalted as 
that of the eternal law, there is no longer any necessity for extolling or exag- 

41 



322 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



gerating power, nor of attributing to it faculties to which it has no claim ; and, 
on the other hand, it is no longer necessary to exact from it the fulfilment of 
its obligations with that imperious haughtiness which enervates by humiliating 
it. Flattery and menace become alike needless when there are other resources 
for exciting it to action, and other barriers for restraining it within due bounds. 
The statue of the king, it is true, is not set up in the public squares as an ob- 
ject for the people's adoration; but, on the other hand, the king is no longer 
placed at the mercy of democrats, soon to become an object of mockery and 
derision, the contemptible laughing-stock of demagogues. 

Observe the moderation and mildness of the definition we have just ana- 
lysed ! It does not contain a single word which can wound the most delicate 
susceptibility of the most ardent partisans of public liberty. The law, accord- 
ing to this definition, consists in the rule of reason j the common weal is its 
only aim ; and when the authority of him who promulgates and executes it is 
spoken of, there is no mention made of any sovereignty, no expression is used 
indicative of slavish subjection, the most measured term which it was possible 
to select is made use of — care : Qui CURAM communitatis habe.t. Bear in mind, 
that the author here quoted is accustomed to weigh his words like precious 
metal, and to employ them with the most scrupulous delicacy, pausing a long 
time, when necessary, to explain any that may present the least ambiguity, and 
you will then understand what ideas this great man entertained upon power ; 
you will discover whether the spirit of oppressive doctrines could have pre- 
vailed in the Catholic schools, in which this Doctor was, and is still, acknowl- 
edged as an almost infallible oracle. 

Compare the definition given by St. Thomas, and adopted by all theologians, 
with that which Rousseau has given. In that of St. Thomas, law is the ex- 
pression of reason ; in that of Rousseau, the expression of will : in the former, 
it is an application of the eternal law J in the latter, the product of general will. 
On which side are wisdom and good sense ? Law was understood among the 
nations of Europe as it is explained by St. Thomas and all the Catholic schools j 
and tyranny was banished from Europe, Asiatic despotism was impossible, the 
admirable institution of European monarchy was established. At a later 
period, Rousseau's explanation was adopted, and then came the Convention, 
with its scaffolds and its horrors. 

Publicists have already nearly abandoned the theory of " a general will ;" 
and even those who contend for the sovereignty of the people, do not maintain 
that the will of all the citizens should constitute the law. The law, say they, 
is not the expression of general will, but of general reason. The philosopher 
of Geneva would have the will of individuals collected, the aggregate of which 
he termed the general will. In like manner, the publicists of whom we are 
speaking are of opinion that it is necessary to collect, amongst the governed, 
the greatest amount of reason, and to give this to the government for its 
guidance, the governing body being merely an instrument for the application 
of it. It is not men who command, say they, but the law ; and the law is 
nothing else than reason and justice. 

This theory, so far as it is correct, and apart from the applications which 
might be made of it, is not a discovery of modern science ; it is a traditional 
principle of all Europe, which presided at the formation of society, and has 
given to civil power an organisation differing widely from those of antiquity, 
and equally so from those of modern times that have not participated in our 
civilisation. This, on close examination, appears to be the reason why Euro- 
pean monarchies, even the most absolute, have been so very different from the 
Asiatic. A singular phenomenon : at the very time when society among us 
had no legal guarantees against the power of kings, it still had other very for- 
cible ones which were purely moral. Modern science cannot, therefore, claim 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



323 



the discovery of a new principle of government ; it has unknowingly resus- 
citated the ancient one. By rejecting the doctrine of Rousseau, instead of 
making, according to the vulgar expression, a step in advance, it retrograded ; 
but to retrograde is not always to lose an advantage. What is or can be lost 
by receding from the brink of a precipice to enter upon a safe road ? Rous- 
seau complains, and with reason, that certain writers have so far exaggerated 
the prerogatives of civil power, as to convert mankind into a common herd, of 
which rulers could dispose to serve their interest or caprice. Such reproaches, 
however, cannot be applied to the Catholic Church, nor to any of the illus- 
trious schools sheltered in her bosom. The philosopher of Geneva makes a 
severe attack upon Hobbes and Grotius for having maintained this servile doc- 
trine. Catholics have nothing to do with the cause of these two writers. I 
will observe, however, that it would not be just to place the latter upon a pa- 
rallel with the former. Grotius has certainly afforded reason for the accusa- 
tion. He maintains that there are cases in which governments are not for the 
benefit of the governed, but for that of the governing powers. " Sic imperia 
qusedam esse possunt comparata ad regum utilitateni." {Be Jure Belli et 
Pads, lib. i. cap. 3.) But, whilst we acknowledge that this principle has a 
dangerous tendency, we grant that the doctrines of the Dutch writer do not 
upon the whole tend to the total ruin of morality. 

By rendering Grotius his due share of justice, we prevent any exaggeration 
of the evil which may exist on the side of our opponents j it must now be per- 
mitted to Catholic hearts to remark with noble satisfaction, that such doctrines 
could never be established amongst the professors of the true faith, and that 
the fatal maxims which lead to oppression have originated precisely among 
those who have deviated from the teaching of the Chair of St. Peter. No ; 
Catholics have never brought under discussion whether kings have an unlimited 
power over the lives and fortunes of their subjects, to such a degree as to ad- 
mit of no opposition, whatever be the excess of the absolutism and despotism 
exercised over them. Whenever flattery raised its voice to exaggerate the 
royal prerogative, this voice was immediately silenced by the unanimous out- 
cry of the supporters of sound doctrine. Witness the remarkable example of 
a solemn retractation imposed by the tribunal of the Inquisition upon a 
preacher who had exceeded his bounds. Not so in England, a country pro- 
verbial for its hatred of Catholicity. Whilst here, in Spain, it was forbidden 
under a severe penalty to circulate maxims so degrading, in England the 
question was proposed with the greatest gravity, and writers upon law were 
divided in their sentiments. (See end of chapter 39.) 

Every impartial reader has already been able to form an opinion on the value 
of declamations against the right divine, and on that pretended affinity of Ca- 
tholic doctrines with despotism and slavery. The exposition of these doctrines 
which I have just given is certainly not founded upon vain reasoning, sought 
out on purpose to darken the question. I have not in any way shunned the 
difficulty. 

The question was, to know in what these doctrines consisted. I have shown 
clearly, that those who calumniate them do not understand them, and that we 
may even be allowed to suppose that they have never taken the trouble to ex- 
amine them, such is the levity and ignorance with which they express them- 
selves. Perhaps I have adduced too many facts and quotations ; but let the 
reader bear in mind, that my object is not to present him with a code of doc- 
trines, but to give to this point of doctrine an historical investigation. Now, 
history does not call for discourses, but facts ; and in matters of doctrine, the 
sentiments of authors are facts. Whilst beholding the salutary reaction now 
taking place in favour of sound principles, let us avoid giving an incomplete 
statement of the truth. For the cause of religion it is highly important that 



324 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



its advocates should be free from even the most remote suspicion of dishonesty 
or dissimulation. On this account, I have, without hesitation, given in their 
integrity the doctrines laid down by Catholic writers, just as I find them in 
their works. By misrepresenting and confounding facts, Protestants and un- 
believers have succeeded in deceiving ; let me hope that, by explaining and 
elucidating them, I shall not be unsuccessful in removing the deception. 

I purpose examining, in the remaining part of this work, some other ques- 
tions relating to the same subject — questions perhaps not more important, but 
certainly more delicate. And for this reason, I was obliged to smooth the way, 
that I might proceed with more liberty and ease. I have hitherto made the 
cause of religion defend itself with its own weapons, without borrowing the 
support of auxiliaries which were superfluous. I shall proceed in the same 
course, fully convinced that Catholicity can only lose by any line of vindica- 
tion that identifies it with political interests, and confines it within a circle too 
limited for its immensity. Empires appear and disappear j the Church of Christ 
will last till the end of time. Political opinions undergo changes and modi- 
fications ; the august dogmas of our religion remain immutable. Thrones rise 
and fall ; and the rock upon which Jesus Christ has built His Church stands 
unshaken throughout the course of time, ever defying the powers of hell. "When 
we take up arms in her defence, let us be impressed with the importance of our 
mission j let there be no exaggeration, no flattery — the pure truth in measured, 
but accurate and firm language. In addressing ourselves to the people, in 
proclaiming the truth to kings, let us bear in mind that religion is above poli- 
tics, and God above kings and people. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

ON RESISTANCE TO THE CIVIL POWER. 

The doctrines of Catholicity, therefore, in reference both to the origin and 
the exercise of civil power, are unobjectionable. Let us now proceed to another 
point — one of greater delicacy and difficulty, if not of more importance. To 
state the question frankly, without any subterfuge or evasion : " Is it allovwble 
in any case to resist the civil power?" It is impossible to speak more distinctly, 
or to employ more precise and simple terms in stating this question, which is 
the most important, the most difficult, and the most startling of any that the 
subject we have in hand presents for our investigation. We know that Pro- 
testantism from its commencement proclaimed the right of insurrection against 
civil power; and no one is ignorant of the fact that Catholicity has ever 
preached up obedience to this power ; so that if the former has been from its 
infancy an element of revolution and of overthrow, the latter has been an ele- 
ment of tranquillity and good order. This distinction might induce us to be- 
lieve that Catholicity favors oppression, since it leaves the people without 
arms to defend their liberty. " You preach up obedience to the civil powers," 
our adversaries will say ; " you pronounce, in all cases, an anathema upon any 
insurrection which attacks them ; should tyranny prevail, therefore, you be- 
come its most powerful auxiliaries ; for, by your doctrine, you arrest the arm 
ready to be raised in defence of liberty ; you stifle with the cry of conscience 
the indignation awakened in generous hearts." This is a serious charge, which 
compels us to elucidate, as far as possible, this important point, and to distin- 
guish in it truth from error, certainty from doubt. 

Some men would shrink from the investigation of such questions, and prefer 
drawing a veil over them — a veil which they venture not to raise, lest they 
should find an abyss. And assuredly their timidity is not inexcusable ; for 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



325 



there are abysses unfathomable, and dangers that strike the mind with awe. 
One false step may lead to destruction ; one move in a wrong direction may 
let loose tempests that would lay society in ruins. Whilst, however, I willingly 
admit the pure intentions of such persons, I may be permitted to observe, that 
their prudence is quite thrown away, that their foresight and precaution are 
of no avail. Whether they investigate these questions or not, they are inves- 
tigated, agitated, and decided, in a manner that we must deplore ; and, worse 
still, the theories thence arising have been reduced to practice. Revolutions 
are no longer confined to books, they have become realities ; quitting the quiet 
path of mere speculative philosophy, they are to be seen in the streets and in 
the public squares. Since, then, things have come to such a pass, why seek 
palliatives, make use of restrictions, or invoke silence ? Let us tell the truth, 
just as it is, without concealment; since it is the truth, it will neither shrink 
before abundance of knowledge, nor the attacks of error. It is truth ; its 
manifestation, its diffusion can have no injurious effect. In a word, G-od, who 
is the Author of societies, had no need of establishing them upon falsehood. 
This candor is the more necessary, because political changes may have led 
some persons to disavow the truths we are discussing, or no longer to under- 
stand them aright ; whilst others imagine that obedience to legitimate autho- 
rity has been taught only by a party anxious to make this doctrine the 
foundation of their tyranny. Men of erroneous opinions and evil intentions 
have their own codes, to which they have recourse whenever it will forward 
their designs : their fatal errors or their sordid interests form the rule of their 
conduct ; this is the source of their knowledge and of their inspirations. Men, 
therefore, endowed with a pure heart and with upright intentions, should know 
what to hold by in political oscillations ; it is no longer sufficient for them to 
have a general knowledge of the principle of obedience to the legitimate autho- 
rities; they must also be acquainted with their applications. 

It is true that, in conflicts arising from civil discord, many men throw aside 
their own convictions to accommodate themselves to the exigencies of their 
interests j but it is no less certain, that there is still to be found a great num- 
ber of conscientious men who adhere to them. We may also add, that the 
generality of the individuals composing a nation, not being usually in the 
urgent necessity of choosing between the sacrifice of their convictions and the 
risk of grave and imminent peril, those who entertain them usually find means 
to make their influence felt in preventing great evils or in remedying them. 
According to certain pcssimistes, reason and justice are for ever banished from 
the earth, leaving it a prey to self-interest, and substituting for the dictates of 
conscience the designs of egotism. In their estimation, it is labor in vain to 
discuss and decide questions which may guide us in practice ; for, according to 
them, whatever a man's conviction may be in theory, his practical decision will 
always be the same. It is my happiness, or misfortune, to take a different view 
of the case, and to believe that there still exist in the world, and particularly 
in Spain, men of profound convictions, and possessed of sufficient strength of 
mind to regulate their conduct by those convictions. The strongest proof that 
the inutility of doctrines is exaggerated, is the zeal evinced by all parties to 
lay hold of them. Whether from interest or from delicacy, all appeal to doc- 
trines ; and this interest or delicacy would not exist, if doctrines did not pos- 
sess a powerful ascendency in society. Nothing, in discussion, is more 
perplexing than the introduction of several questions at the same time; and 
for this reason, I shall proceed in such a manner as to distinguish those which 
present themselves here. I will resolve, one by one, those which relate to our 
object, and pass over those which are foreign to it. Above all, we must bear 
in mind the general principle at all times inculcated by Catholicity, viz. the 
obligation of obeying legitimate authority. Let us now see how this principle 

2C 



326 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



is to be applied. In the first place, Are we to obey the civil power when it com- 
mands something that is evil in itself? No, we are not ; for the simple reason 
that what is evil in itself is forbidden by G-od ; now, we must obey God rather 
than men. 

In the second place, Are we to obey the civil power when it interferes in mat- 
ters not included in the circle of its facidties ? No ; for, with regard to these 
matters, it is not a power. From the very supposition that its faculties do not 
extend so far, we affirm that, in this point of view, it is not a real power. Be- 
sides, what I have advanced does not exactly and exclusively concern spiritual 
matters, to which I appear to allude. I apply this restriction of civil power 
also to matters purely temporal. It is necessary to refer here to what I have 
said in another part of this work, viz., that whilst we grant to civil power suffi- 
cient force and attributes for the maintenance of order and unity in the social 
body, it is just nevertheless, that we should not allow it to absorb the indi- 
vidual and the family, so as to destroy their, individuality, to deprive them of 
their own sphere, and leave them only the means of acting as an integral part 
of society. This is one of the distinguishing features between Christian and 
pagan civilisation : the latter, in its zeal for the preservation of social unity, 
excluded every individual and family right ; the former, on the contrary, has 
amalgamated the interests of the individual with those of families and society, 
so that they neither destroy nor embarrass each other. Thus, besides the 
sphere within which the action of the civil power is properly confined, there are 
others into which it has no right to enter, and in which individuals and fami- 
lies live without clashing with the colossal force of the government. 

It is just to observe here, that Catholicity has done much for the mainte- 
nance of this principle, which is a strong guarantee of the liberty of the people. 
The separation of the two powers temporal and spiritual, the independence of 
the latter with respect to the former, the distinction of the persons in whom it 
is vested : such has been one of the principal causes of this liberty, which, 
under different forms of government, is the common inheritance of European 
nations. Ever since the foundation of the Church, this principle of the inde- 
pendence of the spiritual power has at all times served, by the mere fact of its 
existence, to remind men that the rights of civil power are limited, that there 
are things beyond its province, cases in which a man may say, and ought to 
say, I will not obey. 

This is another of those cases in which Protestantism has given a wrong 
direction to the civilisation of Europe, and in which, far from opening the way 
to liberty, it has riveted the chains of slavery. Its first step was the abolition 
of the Pontifical authority, the overthrow of the hierarchy, the refusal to grant 
to the Church any kind of power whatever, and the placing of spiritual supre- 
macy in the hands of princes ; that is to say, it has retrograded towards pagan 
civilisation, in which we find the sceptre united with the pontificate. The 
grand political problem was precisely the separation of these two powers, in 
order to save society from subjection to one sole unlimited authority, exercising 
its faculties without restraint, and from which might consequently be expected 
vexation and oppression. This separation was effected without any political 
views, any fixed design on the part of men, wherever Catholicity was estab- 
lished ; for her discipline required and her dogmas inculcated it. Is it not 
strange that the advocates of theories of equilibrium and counterpoise, who 
have so loudly extolled the utility of separating powers, and of dividing autho- 
rity among them with a view to prevent it from being converted into tyranny, 
should not have noticed the profound wisdom of this Catholic doctrine, even 
when considered merely in a social and political point of view ? But no ; it is 
remarkable, on the contrary, that all modern revolutions have manifested a 
decided tendency towards the amalgamation of the civil and ecclesiastical 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



327 



powers — a convincing proof that these revolutions have proceeded from an 
origin contrary to the generative principle of European civilisation, and that 
instead of guiding it towards perfection, they have rather served to lead it 
astray. The union of Church and State in England, under the reigns of 
Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, produced the most cruel despotism ; and if that 
country at a later period acquired a higher degree of liberty, it was not as- 
suredly owing to that religious authority given by Protestantism to the head 
of the state, but in spite of it. It is worthy of remark, that in later times, 
when England entered upon a more extensive sphere of liberty, it was owing 
to the diminution of the civil power on all matters appertaining to religion, 
and to a greater development of Catholicity, opposed in its very principles to 
this monstrous supremacy. In the North of Europe, where the Protestant 
system has also prevailed, civil authority has been unlimited ; and even at the 
present time, we find the Emperor of Russia indulging in the most barbarous 
persecutions against Catholics ; more distrustful of those who defend the inde- 
pendence of spiritual power, than of the revolutionary clubs. The autocrat is 
devoured with a thirst for unlimited authority, and a decided instinct urges 
him to attack in particular the Catholic religion, which forms his principal 
obstacle. 

It is remarkable with what uniformity all power, in this respect, tends to 
despotism, whether under a revolutionary or monarchical form. Impatient of 
the restraint laid upon him by the spiritual power, Louis XIV. attempted to 
crush the power of Rome. He was urged to it by the same motives as the 
Constituent Assembly; the monarch rested his cause upon the rights of 
royalty, and the liberties of the G-allican Church — the Constituent Assembly 
invoked the rights of the nation, and the principles of philosophy ; but in the 
main they were actuated by one and the same motive, that of ascertaining 
whether or not civil power should be restricted : in the former case, it was 
monarchy tending to despotism; in the latter, democracy advancing to the 
terrors of the Convention. When Napoleon wished to bruise the head of the 
revolutionary hydra, to reorganize society, to create a power, he made use of 
religion as the most potent element. Catholicity was the only predominating 
religion in France j to this he had recourse, and signed the Concordat. But, 
observe, that no sooner did he imagine his work of reparation complete, and 
the critical moment of the establishment of his power passed, than he began 
to think of extending it, of freeing himself from all restraint. He began to 
look upon that pontiff, whose presence at his coronation had so much gratified 
him, with a more supercilious eye. At first he had some serious disputes with 
him, and ended by becoming his most inveterate enemy. 

These observations, to which I invite the attention of every reflecting mind, 
acquire more importance from the consideration of what has taken place in our 
own religious and most Catholic monarchy. In spite of the preponderating 
influence of the Catholic religion in Spain, the principle of resistance to the 
court of Rome has ever been preserved in a particular and remarkable manner ; 
thus, whilst the Austrian dynasty and the Bourbons endeavoured to lay aside 
our old laws, so far as they were favourable to political liberty, they preserved 
as a sacred deposit the traditional resistance of Ferdinand the Catholic, of 
Charles V., and of Philip II. The deep root which Catholicity had taken in 
Spain doubtless prevented matters from being carried to extremes ; but it is no 
less true that the germ existed, and was handed down from generation to gener- 
ation, as if its complete development was expected at some more favourable 
period. This fact was placed in peculiarly strong relief at the time of the 
Bourbon accession, when the monarchy of Louis XIV. was introduced amongst 
us, and the last vestiges of the ancient liberties of Castile, Aragon, Valencia, 
and Catalonia disappeared; the mania for kingly rights was at its height in the 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED "WITH CATHOLICITY. 



reigns of Charles III. and Charles IV. Strange coincidence ! The epoch in 
which the greatest jealousy was entertained against the Court of Rome and 
the independence of Church authority, was exactly that in which ministerial 
despotism was in its greatest force, and in which there was seen something 
still worse — the despotism of a favorite, with all its pitiful show. True, the 
ideas of the French schools were at that time influencing Spain j and of this 
neither the King, nor, probably, some of his ministers, were aware : but this 
does not militate against the reflections we are making ; on the contrary, it 
comes in support of them, by showing their applicability to circumstances quite 
dissimilar, and consequently their soundness and importance. The object here 
aimed at was the overthrow of the established authority, to make way for 
another equally unlimited ; to effect this, it was necessary to urge on the for- 
mer to abuse its prerogatives, and, at the same time, to establish precedents to 
fall back upon, so soon as the revolution should have displaced the absolute 
monarchy. What important reflections are here presented to us ! What 
strange analogies rise to view between circumstances apparently most antago- 
nistic ! In our times, we have seen bishops brought to trial from the same 
motives that were alleged in a celebrated cause in the reign of Charles III. ; 
and the Supreme Tribunals of our own days have heard from the lips of their 
fiscals* the same doctrines formerly propounded by those of the Council. Thus 
do doctrines meet, and thus, by different ways, do we arrive at the same end. 
According to the ancient fiscals, the authority of the king was every thing ; 
the rights of the crown, like the ark of old, were held so sacred, that to touch, 
or even to look upon them, was accounted a sacrilege. Well, the ancient mo- 
narchy has disappeared — the throne is no longer any thing more than a shadow 
of what it once was — the Revolution has triumphed over it ; and yet, despite a 
change so profound, it is not long since a fiscal of the Supreme Tribunal, 
charging a bishop with an offence against the rights of the civil power, made 
use of these words : " In the state, a leaf cannot be plucked without the per- 
mission of government/' These words need no comment ; the writer of these 
lines heard them uttered ; and this plain, unequivocal declaration of arbitrary 
power seemed to him to throw a new ray of light upon history. 

The gravity and importance of this subject required this digression ; it was 
incumbent on me to show how far the Catholic principle of the independence 
of spiritual power may serve the cause of true liberty. This principle, in fact, 
eminently teaches that the faculties of civil power are limited, and it is, con- 
sequently, a perpetual condemnation of despotism. To revert to the original 
question. It remains, then, established, that we are to be subject to the civil 
power so long as it does not go beyond its proper limits; but that the Catholic 
doctrine never enjoins obedience when civil power oversteps the limits of its 
faculties. 

It will not be uninteresting to the reader to learn how the principle of obe- 
dience was understood by one of the most illustrious interpreters of Catholic 
doctrine — by the holy Doctor so often cited. According to him, whenever laws 
are unjust (and observe, that, in his opinion, they may be so in many ways), 
they are not binding on conscience, unless for fear of creating scandal, or 
causing greater evils ; that is to say, that, in certain cases, an unjust law may 
become obligatory, not by virtue of any duty which it imposes, but from mo- 
tives of prudence. These are his words, to which I crave the reader's par- 
ticular attention: "Laws are unjust in two ways; either because they are 
opposed to the common weal ; or on account of their aim, as is the case when 
a government imposes upon its subjects onerous laws, not for the good of the 
commonweal, but for the sake of self-interest or ambition; or on account of 

* Crown attorneys, charged with the prosecution of criminal and other causes. 



9 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



329 



their author, as when any one makes a law without being invested with proper 
faculties; again, they may be unjust in form, as when the taxes are unequally 
divided among the multitude, although in other respects tending to the public 
good. Such laws are rather outrages than laws; since, as St. Augustin 
observes (lib. i. de Lib. Arb. cap. 5), ' An unjust law does not appear to be a 
law.' Such laws, therefore, are not binding in conscience, unless, perhaps, for 
the avoiding of scandal and trouble — a motive which ought to induce man to 
give up his right, as St. Matthew observes : < And whosoever shall force thee 
to go one mile, go with him other two ; and if any man will go to law with 
thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.' Laws may also be 
unjust in another point of view, when they are contrary to the will of God; as 
the laws of tyrants enforcing idolatry, or anything else contrary to divine law. 
With respect to such laws, it is not allowable, under any circumstances, to 
obey them ; for, as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, ' We must obey God 
rather than man/" "Injustae autem sunt leges dupliciter; uno modo per 
contrarietatem ad bonum commune e contrario praedictis, vel ex fine, sicut cum 
aliquis praesidens leges imponit onerosas subditis non pertinentes ad utilitatem 
communem, sed magis ad propriam cupiditatem vel gloriam ; vel etiam ex 
auctore, sicut cum aliquis legem fert ultra sibi commissam potestatem; vel 
etiam ex forma cum inaequaliter onera multitudinis dispensantur, etiamsi ordi- 
nentur ad bonum commune; et hujusmodi magis sunt violentiae quam leges, 
quia sicut Augustinus dicit (lib. i. de Lib. Arb. cap. 5, parum a princ.) lex 
esse non videtur quae justa non fuerit, unde tales leges in foro conscientiae non 
obligant, nisi forte propter vitandum scandalum vel turbationem, propter quod 
etiam homo juri suo cedere debet secundum illud Math. cap. v. ' Qui te 
angariaverit mille passus, vade cum eo alia duo, et qui abstulerit tibi tunicam 
da ei et pallium/ Alio modo leges possunt esse injustae per contrarietatem ad 
bonum divinum, sicut leges tyrannorum inducentes ad idololatriam, vel ad 
quodcumque aliud quod sit contra legem divinam, et tales leges nullo modo 
licet observare, quia sicut dicitur Act. cap. v. : * Obedire oportet Deo magis 
quam hominibus/ " (D. Th. 1, 2, quaast. 90, art. 1.) 
This doctrine furnishes us with the following rules : 

1. We cannot, under any circumstances, obey the civil power when its com- 
mands are opposed to the divine law. 

2. When laws are unjust, they are not binding in conscience. 

3. It may become necessary to obey these laws from motives of prudence; 
that is, in order to avoid scandal and commotions. 

4. Laws are unjust from some one of the following causes : 

When they are opposed to the common weal — when their aim is not the good 
of the commonweal — when the legislator outsteps the limits of his faculties — 
when, although in other respects tending to the good of the commonweal, and 
proceeding from competent authority, they do not observe suitable equity ; for 
instance, when they divide unequally the public imposts. 

We have quoted and copied the venerable text whence these rules are 
derived : their illustrious author has been the guide of all the theological schools 
during the last six centuries ; his authority has never been called in question 
in these schools on points of dogma or morality; these rules may, therefore, 
be regarded as the recapitulation of the doctrines of Catholic theologians with 
reference to the obedience due to authority. We may now, without doubt, 
appeal with entire confidence to every man of good sense. Let him judge 
whether these doctrines are in the least inclined to despotism, whether they 
have the least tendency to tyranny, in fine, whether they aim the slightest 
blow at liberty. It is vain to seek in them the slightest appearance of flattery 
to the civil power, whose limits are marked out with rigorous severity ; if it 
outsteps them, it is openly told, u Thy laws are not laws, but outrages ; they 
42 2c2 



330 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



are not binding in conscience; and if, in some instances, thou art obeyed, it 
is not owing to any obligation, but to prudence, in order to avoid scandal and 
commotion ; it is thenceforth such a dishonor to thee, that thy triumph, far 
from entitling thee to renown, assimilates thee to the robber who despoils the 
peaceable man of his garment, and to whom the latter, for the sake of peace, 
gives up his cloak also." If these are doctrines of oppression and despotism, 
we also are advocates for such oppression and despotism; for we cannot conceive 
doctrines more favorable to liberty. 

Upon these principles the admirable institution of European monarchy was 
founded. This teaching has created the moral defences by which that monarchy 
is surrounded; defences restraining it within the limits of its duties, even where 
political guarantees do not exist. The mind, wearied with foolish declamations 
against the tyranny of kings, and, on the other hand, not less tired of the 
boisterous adulations lavished upon power in modern times, expands and 
rejoices on meeting with this pure, disinterested, and sincere expression of the 
rights and duties of governments and of people, on hearing this language, 
impressed with as much of wisdom as of upright intention and generous free- 
dom. What books were consulted by men making use of such language ? 
The Scriptures, the Fathers, the collections of ecclesiastical documents. 
Could they have received their inspirations from the society which surrounded 
them ? No ; for in that same society disorder and confusion prevailed ; some- 
times a turbulent disobedience, at others despotism was predominant. And 
yet they speak with as much discretion, tact, and calmness as if they were 
living in the midst of well-regulated society. They were guided by divine 
revelation, which taught them truth. How often did they see it forgotten 
and trampled under foot ! But uninfluenced by circumstances, however 
unfavorable, they wrote in a region far above the atmosphere of human pas- 
sions. Truth is of all times; proclaim it ever, and Grod will effect the 
rest. (31) 



CHAPTER LY. 

ON RESISTANCE TO DE FACTO GOVERNMENTS. 

The questions hitherto discussed relating to the obedience due to power are 
very grave ; but those of resistance to it are still more important. 

Is it allowable, under any circumstances, in any supposition, to resist the 
civil power by physical force ? Does there nowhere exist a deposing power ? 
How far do Catholic doctrines extend on this subject? Such are the extreme 
points we purpose to discuss. According to one system, obedience is due to 
a government from the very fact of its existence, even on the supposition that 
its existence is illegitimate. Now, it is important to demonstrate, at the very 
outset, the unsoundness of this doctrine, which is contrary to right reason, and 
has never been taught by Catholicity. In preaching obedience " to the powers 
that be/' the Church speaks of powers that have a legitimate existence. The 
absurdity, that a simple fact can create right, can never become a dogma of 
Catholicity. Were it true that resistance would be unlawful, it would be 
equally true that an illegitimate government has a right to command ; for the 
obligation to obey is correlative with the right to command; and an illegitimate 
government would, consequently, become legitimatised by the simple fact of 
its existence. This would legitimatise all usurpations ; the most heroic resist- 
ance on the part of the people would be condemned ; the world would be 
abandoned to the mere rule of force. No ; that degrading doctrine is not true 
which derives legitimacy from usurpation; which says to a people conquered 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



331 



and subjugated by any usurper whatever, " Obey your tyrant; his rights are 
founded on force, and your obligation to him on your weakness." No J there 
cannot be truth in a doctrine that would efface from our history one of its 
brightest pages, that would entail disgrace upon a nation taking up arms to 
expel an usurper, struggling for its independence during a period of six years, 
and finally overthrowing the conqueror of Europe. If Napoleon had succeeded 
in establishing his power amongst us, the Spanish nation would still have main- 
tained the right on account of which it revolted in 1808 ; victory could not 
have rendered usurpation legitimate. The victims of the second of May did 
not legalise the command of Murat ; and had even every corner of the penin- 
sula been made a theatre of horrors similar to those witnessed on the Prado, 
the blood of martyred patriots, covering the usurper and his satellites with 
everlasting infamy, would only have confirmed the sacred right of revolting in 
defence of the throne, of national independence. We must repeat it : the 
simple fact does not create a right, either in private or public affairs ; and so 
soon as such a principle is acknowledged, every idea of reason and justice 
disappears from the world. Those who may have wished to flatter governments 
with so fatal a doctrine, were not aware that this was the very way to ruin 
them, and to sow the seeds of usurpation and insurrection. What will be safe 
here below if we admit the principle, that success insures justice, and that the 
conqueror is always the rightful ruler ? Is not this throwing open a wide gate 
to ambition, and to every crime ? Is it not exciting men to forget every idea 
of right, reason, and justice, to acknowledge no other rule than brute force? 
Governments protected by so strange a doctrine would assuredly owe little 
gratitude to their protectors : this, in fact, is no defence ; it is an insult ; it is 
more of a cruel sarcasm than an apology. To what, indeed, does it amount, 
and how would this doctrine sound ? Why, as follows : " People, obey him 
who commands you; you say his authority is usurped; we do not deny it; but, 
by the very fact of his having attained his end, the usurper has acquired a 
right. He is, indeed, a robber who has attacked you on the highway ; he has 
stolen your money ; but, by the mere fact of your not being able to resist him, 
and being forced to deliver to him your purse, now that he is possessed of it, 
you. ought to respect this money as an inviolable property : such is your duty. 
It is a robbery ; but this robbery being a consummated act, you cannot now 
obtain redress for it." 

In this point of view the doctrine of consummated facts appears so much 
opposed to generally received ideas, that no reasonable man can seriously 
accept it. I do not deny that there are cases in which obedience, even to an 
illegitimate government, is to be recommended ; when, for instance, we foresee 
that resistance would be useless, that it would only lead to new disorders, and 
to a greater effusion of blood : but in recommending prudence to the people, 
let us not disguise it under false doctrines — let us beware of calming the 
exasperation of misfortune by circulating errors subversive of all governments, 
of all society. It is worthy of remark, that all powers, even the most ille- 
gitimate, have a truer instinct than that manifested by the maintenance of such 
maxims. All powers in the first moment of their existence, before commencing 
their operations, before proceeding to one single act, proclaim their legitimacy. 
They seek it in right divine and human, they establish it upon birth or election, 
they derive it from historical titles, or the sudden development of extraordinary 
events ; but all tends to the same point,' the pretension to legitimacy. They 
never speak of the mere fact of their existence ; from the instinct that prompts 
their own preservation they learn better than to rely upon such grounds, since 
to do so would be to annihilate their authority, to destroy their prestige, to 
encourage revolt; in a word, to commit self-destruction. We have here the 
most explicit condemnation of the doctrine we are combating, for the most 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



shameless usurpers have more respect for good sense and the public con- 
science. 

It sometimes happens that doctrines the most erroneous assume a veil of 
gentleness and Christian meekness. We must overthrow the arguments that 
might be employed against us, by the advocates of blind submission to any 
power that happens to be established. "The Scriptures/' they will say, 
" prescribe to us obedience to the authorities, without any distinction ; the 
Christian, therefore, ought not to make any distinction, but submit with resig- 
nation to such as he finds established/' In reply to this objection, I see the 
following very decisive answers. 1. Illegitimate authority is no authority at 
all ; the idea of power involves the idea of right, without which it is mere phy- 
sical power, that is, force. When, therefore, the Scriptures prescribe obedience 
to the authorities, it is the lawful authorities that are implied. 2. The sacred 
text, in enjoining us obedience to the civil power, tells us that it is ordained by 
God Himself, that it is the minister of God Himself ; and it is evident that 
usurpation is never invested with so high a character. The usurper is perhaps 
the instrument of Providence, the scourge of Heaven, as Attila designated him- 
self, but not the minister of God. 3. The sacred Scriptures prescribe obedience 
to the subject in relation to the civil power, in the same way as they prescribe 
it to the slave in relation to his master. But what sort of masters are here 
implied ? Evidently such as exercised a legitimate dominion, as it was under- 
stood at the time, conformable to the prevailing laws and customs ; otherwise 
the Scriptures would require obedience from such slaves as were reduced to 
slavery by an abuse of power. Hence, as the obedience to masters prescribed 
by the Scriptures does not deprive the slave unjustly retained in servitude of 
his right, so also the obedience due to the established authorities should be 
restricted to the lawful authorities, and to cases in which prudence would 
dictate it in order to avoid commotion and scandal. 

In confirmation of the doctrine of mere de facto government, the conduct of 
the first Christians has been sometimes alleged. " They submitted," it is said, 
" to the constituted authorities without even inquiring whether they were legi- 
timate or not. At this epoch usurpations were frequent, the imperial throne 
was established by force, its occupants one after another owed their elevation 
to military insurrection, and to the assassination of their predecessors. We 
find, nevertheless, that Christians never meddled with the question of legi- 
timacy; they respected the established power, and this power failing, they 
submitted without murmuring to the new tyrant who had usurped the throne." 
This argument, it cannot be denied, is very plausible, and presents at first sight 
a serious difficulty; a few reflections, however, suffice to show its extreme 
futility. In order that an insurrection against an unlawful power may be 
legitimate and prudent, those who undertake to overturn it should be sure of 
its illegitimacy, should have in view the substitution of a lawful power, and 
should count besides on the probability of the success of their enterprise. If 
these conditions are not fulfilled, the insurrection has no object; it is a mere 
fruitless attempt, an impotent revenge, which, instead of being useful to society, 
only causes bloodshed, only irritates the power attacked, and can have in con- 
sequence no other effect than to increase oppression and tyranny. 

None of the conditions here mentioned were in existence at the time we are 
speaking of ; all that upright men could do was quietly to resign themselves to 
the calamitous circumstances of the times, and by fervent prayer to implore the 
Almighty to take compassion on mankind. 

When every thing was decided by force of arms, who could say whether such 
or such an emperor was lawfully established ? Upon what rules was the impe- 
rial succession established ? Where was legitimacy to be substituted for 
illegitimacy ? Amongst the Romans — those vile, degraded beings, kissing the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



333 



chains of the first tyrant who offered them food and games ? In the worthless 
posterity of those illustrious patricians who formerly gave laws to the universe ? 
Was it vested in the sons or in the family of some assassinated emperor, when 
the laws had not established hereditary succession, when the sceptre of the 
empire was at the disposal of the legions, when it frequently happened that the 
emperor, the victim of usurpation, had been himself merely a usurper, who 
had mounted to the throne over the corpse of his rival ? Did it exist in the 
ancient rights of those conquered nations now reduced to simple dependencies 
of the empire, divested of all national spirit, having even lost the recollection 
of their former condition, without a thought capable of conducting them in the 
work of their emancipation, and destitute of resources against the colossal force 
of their masters ? What object could any one have, under such circumstances, 
in making attempts against the established government ? When the legions 
decided the fate of the world, alternately elevating and assassinating their 
masters, what could or what ought the Christian to do ? The disciple of a God 
of peace and love, he could not take part in criminal scenes of bloodshed and 
tumult ; authority was tottering and uncertain ; it was not for him to decide 
whether it was legitimate or not ; it only remained for him to submit to the 
power generally acknowledged, and at the arrival of one of those changes, at 
that time of so frequent occurrence, to yield the same obedience to the newly- 
established government. 

The interference of Christians in political disputes would only have served 
to bring into disrepute the holy religion they professed; it would have given to 
philosophers and idolaters a pretext for increasing the catalogue of black 
calumnies which they everywhere brought against the faith. Public report 
accused Catholicity of being subversive of governments ; Christians would have 
furnished a pretext for extending and accrediting this unfounded report, the 
hatred of governments would have been redoubled, and the rigors of persecution 
so cruelly exercised against the disciples of the cross would have been increased. 
Has this state of things ever existed but once, either in ancient or modern 
times ? And could the conduct of the first Christians in this respect be made 
a rule for the Spaniards, for instance, at the time they resisted the usurpation 
of Bonaparte ? Or could it be imitated by any other people in similar circum- 
stances ? Or will it be received as an argument in favor of every kind of 
usurpation ? No; man, in becoming a Christian, does not cease to be a citizen, 
to be a man, to have his rights, and he acts in a praiseworthy manner when- 
ever, within the bounds of reason and justice, he attempts to maintain these 
rights with fearless intrepidity. 

Don Felix Amat, Archbishop of Palmyra, in his posthumous work entitled 
Idea of the Church Militant, makes use of these words : " Jesus Christ, by his 
plain and expressive answer, Render to Cossar the things that are Ccesar's, has 
sufficiently established, that the mere fact of a government's existence is sufii- 
cient for enforcing the obedience of subjects to it." What I have already 
advanced is enough, in my opinion, to show the fallacy of such an assertion ; 
and, as I intend to revert to this subject, and investigate more attentively this 
author's opinion, and the reasons upon which he supports it, I shall not now 
attempt to enter upon its refutation. I will, nevertheless, make one observa- 
tion, which occurred to me on reading the passages in which the Archbishop 
of Palmyra developes it. His work was forbidden at Home; and whatever 
may have been the motives for such a prohibition, we may rest assured that, 
in the case of a book advocating such doctrines, every man who is jealous of 
his rights might acquiesce in the decree of the Sacred Congregation. 

As the opportunity is favorable, we may make a few remarks upon consum- 
mated facts, which are so closely connected with the doctrine under discussion. 
Consummated implies something perfect in its kind ; hence an act is consum- 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



mated when it has attained its completion. This word, applied to crimes, is 
opposed to mere attempt. We say an attempt at robbery, murder, or arson, 
when the undertaking to commit these crimes has been manifested by some act; 
for instance, the lock of a door has been broken, an attack has been made with 
a murderous weapon, combustible matter has been ignited — but the crime is 
not said to be consummated till the robbery, murder, or arson has actually been 
committed. Hence, in a political and social sense, we designate consummated 
facts an usurpation, completely overthrowing the legitimate power, and by 
means of which the usurper is already substituted in its place ; a measure exe- 
cuted in all its points ; such as the suppression of the regular clergy in Spain, 
and the confiscation of their property to the treasury ; a revolution which has 
been triumphant, and which has entirely disposed of a country, as was the 
case with our American possessions. 

From this explanation, we see clearly that a fact does not, by being consum- 
mated, change its nature; it still remains a simple fact — just or unjust, legal 
or illegal — as it was before. The most horrible outrages may also be termed 
consummated facts ; yet, for all that, they do not cease to deserve disgrace and 
punishment. 

What, then, is the meaning of certain phrases continually uttered by some 
men ? " We must respect consummated facts ; we must always accept con- 
summated facts j it is folly to resist consummated facts ; it is a wise policy that 
yields to consummated facts." Far be it from me to assert that all those who 
establish these maxims, profess the fatal doctrines to which they give rise. 
We often admit principles, the consequences of which we reject; and point out 
a certain line of conduct as right, without attending to the abominable maxims 
in which it originates. In human affairs, good and evil, error and truth are 
so narrowly separated, and prudence so closely borders on culpable timidity, 
that in theory, as well as in practice, it is not always easy to remain within 
the bounds prescribed by reason and the eternal principles of sound morality. 
If respect for consummated facts is mentioned, perverse men immediately 
include in it the sanctioning of crime, the spoils of plunder secured to the 
robber, no hope of restitution left to the victims, and a gag put upon their 
mouths, to stifle their complaints. Others, I am aware, have no such design 
in making use of these words, but are the dupes of a confusion of ideas, arising 
from their not having distinguished between moral principles and public expe- 
diency. On this point, therefore, we must distinguish and define, which I will 
do in a few words. 

The simple consummation of a fact does not render it legitimate ; and, con- 
sequently, it is not on this account alone worthy of respect. The robber who 
has stolen does not acquire a right to the thing stolen ; the incendiary who 
reduces a house to ashes is no less deserving of punishment, of being forced to 
make reparation, than if he had been arrested in the attempt. This is so 
evident and clear, that it cannot be called in question. To assert the contrary, 
is to become the enemy of all morality, of all justice, of all right ; and to pro- 
claim the exclusive rule of force and cunning. Consummated facts, apper- 
taining to social and political order, do not change their nature ; the usurper, 
who seizes upon the crown of his lawful predecessor; the conqueror, who, by 
mere force of arms, has subdued a nation, does not thereby acquire a right to 
its possession ; the government, which by gross iniquities has despoiled entire 
classes of citizens, exacted undue contributions, abolished legitimate rights, 
cannot justify its acts by the simple fact of its having sufficient strength to 
execute these iniquities. That is equally evident ; and if there is here any 
difference at all, the crime is only the greater, from the greater gravity and 
extent of the wrongs committed, and of the scandal given to the public. Such 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



335 



are the principles of sound morality — individual morality, social morality; 
morality of the whole human race; immutable, eternal morality. 

Let us now examine the question of public expediency. In some instances, 
a consummated fact, in spite of all its injustice, all its immorality and atrocity, 
acquires such an ascendency, that by not accepting it, or by being determined 
to destroy it, we should let loose a train of troubles and commotions, and per- 
haps without effect. Every government is bound to respect justice, and to act 
in such a manner that its subjects may also respect it ; but it should not com- 
mand what will not be obeyed, when it is deprived of the means of enforcing 
obedience. In such a case, we should not commit an injustice by not attacking 
the illegal interests, or by not endeavoring to obtain redress for the victims ; 
the government, in such a case, may be compared to a man who, beholding 
robbers loaded with the fruit of their theft, is without the means of forcing 
them to make restitution. If you suppose an impossibility, what does it avail 
to say that the government is not a single individual, but a defender of all 
legitimate interests ? No one is bound to impossibilities. 

Observe, also, that this remark applies not only to a physical impossibility, 
but also to a moral one. Whenever, therefore, the government possesses the 
material means of obtaining reparation, a moral impossibility will be consti- 
tuted, when the employing of those means would cause serious difficulties to 
the state, endanger the public peace, or sow the seeds of future insurrection. 
Order and public interest require the preference, for these are the primary 
objects of all government ; consequently, that which cannot be accomplished 
without endangering them, ought to be considered as impossible. The appli- 
cation of these doctrines will always be a question of prudence, that cannot be 
subjected to any general rule. Depending as it does upon a thousand circum- 
stances, it cannot be decided upon abstract principles ; but by the consideration 
of existing facts, duly appreciated and considered by political tact. Such is 
the case of the respect due to consummated facts; the injustice of these facts 
is apparent ; but we must not overlook their force. Not to attack them is not, 
necessarily, to sanction them. The legislator is bound to diminish the evil as 
far as possible ; but not to risk an aggravation of it by attempting an imprac- 
ticable reparation. As it is particularly injurious to society for great interests 
to remain insecure, and uncertain for the future, just means must be adopted, 
which, without occasioning complicity in the evil, may prevent the dangers of 
a doubtful situation, resulting from injustice itself. A just policy does not 
sanction injustice ; but a wise policy never despises the importance of estab- 
lished facts. If such facts exist, and appear indestructible, it tolerates them ; 
but without affording them the sanction of its participation or approval. 
Acting with dignity, it makes the best of difficulties ; and in some sort allies 
the principles of eternal justice with the views of public expediency. We have 
a very striking case in point, which will place this matter in the clearest pos- 
sible light. After the great evils, and the enormous acts of injustice perpe- 
trated during the French Revolution, what possibility was there of making a 
complete reparation ? In 1814, could every thing be restored to the position 
in which it stood in 1789 ? The throne overturned, all social distinctions 
levelled, and property broken up ; who could reconstruct the ancient social 
edifice ? No one. 

Such is the respect to be entertained for consummated facts, which might 
be more properly termed indestructible ones. To illustrate my idea still further, 
I will give it a very simple exemplification. A proprietor, driven from his 
possessions by a powerful neighbor, has not the means of repossessing himself 
of them. He has neither wealth nor influence ; and his spoliator abounds in 
both. If he have recourse to force, he will be vanquished; if to the tribunal, 
he will lose his cause ; what, therefore, is he to do ? To negotiate for an 



336 PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 

accommodation, to obtain what he can, and be resigned to his fate. This is 
all that can be said ; and it is remarkable, that such are the principles adopted 
by governments. History and experience teach us, that consummated facts 
are respected when they are indestructible ; that is, when they possess in them- 
selves sufficient force to make them respected ; in any other case, they are not 
so. And nothing is more natural. Whatever is not founded upon right, can 
only be maintained by force. (32) 



CHAPTER LVL 

HOW THE CIVIL POWER MAY BE LAWFULLY RESISTED. 

From what has been said in the foregoing chapters it follows, that it is 
allowable to resist illegitimate power by force. The Catholic religion does not 
enjoin obedience to governments existing merely de facto ; for morality does not 
admit a mere fact, unsupported by right and justice. However, when power 
is in itself lawful, but in its exercise tyrannical, does our religion prohibit, in 
every instance, resistance by physical force j so that not to resist at all, forms 
a part of her dogmas ? Is insurrection never allowable, in any supposition, for 
any motive ? Although I have already eliminated many questions, it is neces- 
sary to draw here a fresh distinction, in order to fix exactly the point at which 
dogma ends, and opinions begin. It is evident, in the first place, that an indi- 
vidual has no right to kill a tyrant on his own authority. The Council of 
Constance, in its 15th session, condemned the following proposition as heretical: 
" Any vassal or subject may and should, lawfully and meritoriously, kill any 
tyrant. He may even, for this purpose, avail himself of ambushes, and wily 
expressions of affection or adulation ; notwithstanding any oath or pact imposed 
upon him by the tyrant; and without waiting for the sentence or order of any 
judge/' " Quilibet tyrannus potest et debet licite et meritorie occidi per 
quemcumque vassallum suum vel subditum, etiam per clanculares insidias, et 
sub tiles blanditias vel adulationes, non obstante quocumque prsestito juramento, 
seu confoederatione factis cum eo, non expectata sententia vel mandato judicis 
cujuscumque." 

But does this decision of the Council of Constance constitute a prohibition 
of every kind of ' insurrection ? No ; it speaks of the murder of a tyrant by 
any particular individual ; but every case of resistance is not maintained by a 
single individual ) neither is it the aim of every insurrection to destroy a tyrant. 
This doctrine only serves to prevent murder, and a train of evils which would 
overwhelm society if it were established that any individual had a right of his 
own authority to kill the supreme ruler. Who will venture to accuse this 
doctrine of being favorable to tyranny ? The liberty of the people should not 
be based upon the horrid right of assassination ; the defence of the rights of 
society should not be confided to the dagger of a fanatic. The attributes of 
public power are so extensive and various, that their exercise must necessarily 
and frequently inconvenience some individuals. Man, inclined to extremes 
and revenge, easily enlarges upon the grievances which he suffers ; passing 
from a particular to a general, he is inclined to look upon those who injure or 
oppose him as villains. At the slightest shock which he receives from govern- 
ment, he cries out that tyranny is insupportable ; the act of arbitrary power, 
real or imaginary, committed against him, becomes, in his mouth, one of the 
many iniquities perpetrated, or the commencement of those that are to be. 
Grant, therefore, to the individual the right of killing a tyrant ; proclaim to the 
people that, to render such an act lawful and meritorious, there is no need of 
a sentence, or any judicial condemnation ; and from that time this horrible 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



337 



crime will become frequent. The wisest, the justest kings will fall victims to 
the parricidal dagger, or the poisoned cup. You will have furnished no gua- 
rantee to the liberty of the people, and you will have exposed the dearest 
interests of society to dreadful hazards. 

The Catholic Church, by this solemn declaration, has conferred an immense 
service on humanity. The violent death of him who holds the supreme power 
seldom happens without causing bloodshed and great commotion. It provokes 
measures of suspicious precaution, easily converted into tyranny. It follows, 
then, that any crime instigated by excessive hatred of tyranny contributes to 
establish it in a form still more absolute and cruel. Modern nations should 
feel grateful to the Catholic Church for having established this sacred and 
saving principle. A person must be possessed of very mean sentiments, or very 
ferocious instincts, not to appreciate it, or to regret the bloody scenes of the 
Roman Empire and the barbarian monarchy. We have seen, and we still see, 
powerful nations delivered up to dreadful troubles, by the neglect of this 
Catholic maxim. The history of the last three centuries, and the experience 
of this, prove that this august precept of the Church was given to the people 
in anticipation of the dangers which were threatening them. In it we find no 
flattery for kings ; for they are not the only ones benefited by it ; it is a general 
proposition, including all others, whatever be their titles, who exercise supreme 
authority, whatever be the form of government, from the Russian autocrat to 
the most democratical republic. 

It is worthy of remark, that modern constitutions, proceeding from the 
bosom of revolutions, have universally rendered a solemn homage to this 
Catholic maxim ; they have declared the person of the monarch sacred and 
inviolable. What does this mean, but that this person should be placed under 
an impenetrable safeguard ? You reproach the Catholic Church with placing 
a sort of shield before the person of kings, and yet you yourselves declare that 
person inviolable. The anointing of kings you ridicule, and yet you yourself 
declare that the king is sacred. Since you are forced to imitate the Church, 
her dogmas and her discipline must have contained an eternal truth, and high 
political principles ; with this difference, however, that you represent as the 
work of the will of man what she esteems the work of the will of G-od. But 
if supreme power makes a scandalous abuse of its faculties, if it outsteps its 
just bounds, if it tramples under foot fundamental laws, if it persecutes reli- 
gion, corrupts morality, outrages public dignity, attacks the honor of citizens, 
exacts illegal and disproportionate contributions, alienates national property, 
dismembers provinces, inflicts death and ignominy upon the people : in such 
cases, does Catholicity also prescribe obedience? does it forbid resistance? 
does it command subjects to remain tranquil, like a lamb in the claws of a wild 
beast ? May there not exist, either in an individual, or in the principal bodies, 
or in the most distinguished classes of society, or in the entire mass of the 
nation, somewhere, in fine, the right of opposing, of resisting, after all means 
of mildness, representation, counsel, and entreaty have failed ? In such dis- 
astrous circumstances, does the Church leave the people without hope, and 
tyrants without restraint ? 

In such extremities, certain very renowned theologians think that resistance 
is allowable ; but the dogmas of the Church do not descend to these details. 
The Church abstains from condemning the opposite doctrines. In such extreme 
circumstances, non-resistance is not a dogmatical prescription. The Church 
has never taught such a doctrine ; if any one will maintain that she has, let him 
bring forward a decision of a Council or of a Sovereign Pontiff to that effect. 
St. Thomas of Aquin, Cardinal Bellarmin, Suarez, and other eminent theo- 
logians, were well versed in the dogmas of the Church ; and yet, if you consult 
their works, so far from finding this doctrine in them, you will find the opposite 
43 2 D 



338 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



one. Now the Church has not condemned them, she has not confounded them 
with those seditious writers in whom Protestantism abounds, nor with modern 
revolutionists, who are continually disturbing social order. Bossuet and other 
authors of repute differ from St. Thomas, Bellarmin, Suarez ; and this gives 
credit to the opposite opinion, but does not convert it into a dogma. Upon 
certain points of the highest import, the opinions of the illustrious Bishop of 
Meaux suffered contradiction ; and we know that upon this case of an excess 
of tyranny, the Pope at another period was acknowledged to possess faculties 
which Bossuet refuses him. 

The Abbe de Lamennais, in his impotent and obstinate resistance to the 
Holy see, adduced the doctrines of St. Thomas, and those of some other theo- 
logians, pretending that to condemn his own works was to condemn schools 
hitherto held irreproachable. (Affaires de Rome.) The Abbe Gerbet, in his 
excellent refutation of M. de Lamennais, after having very judiciously remarked, 
that the Sovereign Pontiff's object in reproving modern doctrines was, to pre- 
vent a renewal of the errors of Wickliffe, observes, at the epoch of this here- 
siarch's condemnation, the doctrines of St. Thomas and of other theologians 
were well known, and that, nevertheless, no one believed that they were 
included in the condemnation. The excellent author of this refutation deemed 
this sufficient to deprive M. de Lamennais of the shield under which he sought 
to defend and cover his apostacy ; and for this reason, he abstains from draw- 
ing a parallel between the two doctrines. In fact, this reflection alone is 
sufficient to convince any judicious man that the doctrines of St. Thomas bear 
no resemblance to those of M. de Lamennais. It may, however, be useful to 
give in few words a comparison of the two doctrines. At the present time, and 
in these matters, it is very proper to know, not only that these doctrines differ, 
but likewise wherein they differ. M. de Lamennais' theory may be stated in 
the following terms : A natural equality among men, and, as necessary conse- 
quences, 1. Equality of rights, political rights included; 2. The injustice of 
every social and political organization not establishing this equality completely, 
as is the case in Europe and in the whole universe; 3. Expediency and legi- 
timacy of insurrection, to destroy governments, and change social organization ; 
4. Abolition of all government, as the object of the progress of the human 
race. 

The doctrines of St. Thomas on the same points may be thus expressed : A 
natural equality among men ; that is to say, an essential equality, but exclusive 
of physical, intellectual, and moral gifts — an equality among men in the eyes 
of Grod — an equality in their destination, inasmuch as they are all created to 
enjoy Grod — an equality of means, inasmuch as they are all redeemed by Christ, 
and may all receive His grace ; but exclusive of the inequalities which it may 
please G-od to establish by gifts of grace and glory. 1. An equality of social 
and political rights. According to the holy doctor, such an equality is impos- 
sible. He rather supports the utility and legitimacy of certain hierarchies ; 
the respect due to those established by law ; the necessity of there being some 
to command and others to obey; the obligation of being subject to the estab- 
lished laws of the country, whatever be the form of government ; the preference 
for monarchical governments. 2. The injustice of every social and political 
organization not establishing a complete equality. St. Thomas looks upon this 
as an error opposed to reason and to faith. Nay, more ; not only is it true that 
the inequality founded upon the very nature of man and of society is an effect 
and punishment of original sin, in as far as it entails upon man injury or incon- 
venience ; but, according to the holy Doctor, this inequality would have existed 
among men even in a state of innocence. 3. Expediency and legitimacy of 
insurrection, to destroy governments, and to change the social organization. An 
erroneous and fatal opinion. We ought to submit to legitimate governments ; 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



339 



it is expedient even to tolerate such as make an improper use of their power ; 
we must exhaust every means of entreaty, of counsel and representation, before 
we have recourse to others. We can only appeal to force in the greatest 
extremities, on rare occasions, and then only under many restrictions, as will 
be seen elsewhere, -i. Abolition of all government, as the object of the progress 
of the human race. An absurd proposition — a dream that cannot be realized. 
The necessity of government in every society j arguments founded upon the 
nature of man j analogies from the human body, from the very order of the 
universe ; the existence of government even in a state of innocence. Such are 
the doctrines of De Lamennais and St. Thomas respectively. Let the reader 
compare them, and judge for himself. 

It is impossible to adduce the words of the holy Doctor — they would fill the 
volume. Should any reader wish to consult them himself, let him read, in 
addition to the passages inserted in this work, the whole treatise, De Regimine 
Principum, the commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans, and those passages 
of the Summa in which the holy Doctor treats of the soul, of the creation of 
man, of the state of innocence, of the angels and of their hierarchy, of original 
sin and its effects, and, above all, his valuable Treatise on Laws and that on 
Justice, in which he discusses the origin of the right of property and of 
inflicting punishments, After that he will be convinced of the truth of what 
I have just advanced; he will then see the injustice of M. de Lamennais in 
attempting to make the illustrious writers and saints venerated on our altars 
the accomplices of his apostacy. In grave and delicate matters confusion pro- 
duces error, the enemies of truth are interested in spreading darkness, in 
establishing general and vague propositions susceptible of various interpreta- 
tions. They seek with anxiety a text favorable to some one of the numerous 
interpretations that are possible, and proudly exclaim, " How unjust it is in 
you to condemn us ; what we maintain was asserted centuries ago, by the most 
respected and celebrated writers." The Abbe de Lamennais must have reck- 
oned in a singular manner upon the credulity of his readers, to think of making 
them believe that there was no honest man to be found at Rome capable of 
informing the Pope, that in condemning the doctrines of the apostle of revo- 
lution, he was condemning also those of the angel of the schools, and other 
distinguished theologians. It is possible that M. de Lamennais never read 
the authors except in haste and in fragments, but many persons at Rome have 
spent their lives in studying them. 

We are not ignorant of the violent declamations of Luther, Zwinglius, Knox, 
Jurieu, and other leaders of Protestantism, to stir up the people to revolt 
against princes ; we are not ignorant of the gross and violent invectives made 
use of by these sectaries to excite the multitude. Catholics look upon such 
extravagances with horror. In like manner, they look with dread upon the 
anarchical doctrine of Rousseau, establishing that " the clauses of the social 
contract are so determined by the very nature of the act, that the least modi- 
fication of them would render them vain and null ; so that every one then 
resumes his former rights and regains his natural liberty. ( Contrat Social, 1. 
i. c. 6.) The doctrine of the theologians above cited does not contain this 
fruitful germ of insurrection and disaster \ but, on the other hand, they are 
not found timid and pusillanimous in the last extremities. They preach up 
resignation, patience, and longanimity ; but there is a point at which they stop 
and exclaim, Enough. If they do not advocate insurrection, they do not pro- 
hibit it \ it would be in vain to require them to teach as a dogmatical truth the 
obligation of not resisting in extreme cases. They cannot teach the people to 
consider as a dogma what they do not acknowledge as such. It is not their 
fault if the tempest bursts, if the roaring waves arise; no other hand can 



340 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITII CATHOLICITY. 



control them than that of God, who rides upon the north wind and sports with 
the tempest. 

For many centuries there has been inculcated in Europe a doctrine much 
criticised by those who do not understand it, the intervention of the Pontifical 
authority between the people and their sovereigns. This doctrine was nothing 
less than Heaven descending as an arbiter and judge, to put an end to the 
disputes of the earth. 

The temporal power of the Popes has served as a wonderful theme to the 
enemies of the Church to create alarm, and declaim against Rome ; but this 
power is no less an historical fact and a social phenomenon, which has filled 
with admiration the most renowned men of modern times, including some Pro- 
testants. The Scriptures make it a duty for slaves to obey their masters, even 
when they are oppressive and unjust. All that can be inferred from this is, 
that a prince, by the simple fact of his being wicked, does not lose his authority 
over his subjects, which condemns beforehand the errors of those who make 
the right of commanding dependent upon the sanctity of its possessor. Such 
a principle is anarchical, and incompatible with the existence of every society. 
When it is once established, power remains unsafe and tottering ; every dis- 
turber declares all those divested of authority whom he may deem culpable. 
But our question is of a different nature, and the opinion of theologians cited 
by us has nothing to do with this error. These theologians also on their part 
advocate obedience to rulers, even though they be oppressive and unjust; they 
also condemn insurrection, when founded on no other pretext than the vices 
of persons exercising supreme power; they do not admit that any abuse of 
power justifies resistance ; but they do not consider that they impugn the sacred 
text by admitting that in extreme cases it is allowable to place a barrier 
against the excesses of a tyrant. " If governments do not lose their power by 
the simple fact of their being wicked, how," it will be said, " can we conceive 
resistance to them lawful V This is certainly not allowable, so long as they 
do not outstep the bounds of their faculties ; but when they do so, their com- 
mands, as St. Thomas says, are rather acts of violence than laws. " No one 
has the right of judging the supreme power." This is true; but above this 
power exist the principles of reason, morality, religion. Power, although 
supreme, is bound to the execution of its promises, to keep its oaths. Society 
is not formed upon the model of Rousseau's ideal contract ; but there exist, in 
certain cases, real pacts between the rulers and the people, to which both are 
bound to adhere. 

In the celebrated Catholic Proclamation to his pious Majesty Philip the Great, 
King of Spain and Em/peror of the Indies by the Counsellors and the Council 
of One Hundred of the city of Barcelona, in 1640, an epoch so profoundly reli- 
gious that the Counsellors quote, as a high title of glory, the zeal of the Cata- 
lonians for the Catholic faith, the devotion of the Catalonians to our lady the 
Blessed Virgin and the most holy Sacram,ent ; — at that time, which pride and 
ignorance have so often taxed with fanaticism, these counsellors said to the 
king, " Besides civil obligation, the customs, constitutions, and acts of the 
court of Catalonia are binding on conscience, and to violate them would be a 
mortal sin ; for the prince has no right to annul a contract ; it is made freely, 
but cannot be revoked without injustice. If a contract is not subject to the 
civil law, it is subject to the law of reason; and although the prince may be 
the master of the laws, the contracts he makes with his vassals are inviolable, 
for in making them he is a mere individual, and the vassal acquires a right 
equal to his. A contract, in fine, should be made between equals. Hence, as 
the vassal cannot be unfaithful to his lord, the latter, in like manner, is bound 
to keep the promise he has made by solemn engagement ; and indeed, the 
rupture of a pact ought least of all to be expected on the part of a prince. If 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



341 



the word of a king is law, that word given in a solemn contract is still more 
binding. (Catholic Proclamation, sect. 27.) The courtiers urged the monarch 
to measures of coercion to reduce the Catalonians to submission ; the Castilian 
army was preparing to enter the principality. In this extremity, after 
exhausting all means of representation and entreaty, the counsellors thus 
expressed themselves : " Finally, men who have vowed an inveterate hatred 
against the Catalonians have been so successful in their continual persuasions, 
that the uprightness and equity of your majesty have been turned from the 
means of peace and tranquillity proposed by us, and which should have been 
admitted, were it only on the grounds of experience ; and to fill up the cup of 
their malice, they now lay your majesty under an obligation of oppressing the 
principality still further, by sending an army to sack and pillage wherever the 
caprice of the soldier may lead him ; which would place this country in a posi- 
tion to say (were it not for the love it has borne, still bears, and ever will bear 
to your majesty) that such a breach of sworn faith would leave it free, a thing 
of which the province is unwilling to think, and prays God to avert. Never- 
theless, the principality knows from experience that these soldiers have neither 
respect nor pity for any thing or person, married women and innocent virgins, 
temples, or Grod Himself, images of the Saints or the sacred vessels of our 
churches, nay, even the blessed Sacrament has twice this year been committed 
to the flames by these soldiers. The principality is, therefore, everywhere in 
arms to defend, in such an urgent and irremediable extremity, fortune, life, 
honor, liberty, home, laws, and above all the sacred temples, the sacred images, 
and the holy Sacrament of the altar (be the same for ever praised). In such a 
case, the holy theologians do not merely affirm that resistance is lawful, but still 
further, that all persons, whether lay or clerical, may take up arms to avert the 
evil; that both secular and ecclesiastical property may and ought to contribute 
to the defence; that the nations invaded may, as the cause is universal, unite } 
confederate, and form juntas with a view to prevent such evils." (§36) 

Such was the language addressed to kings, at a time when religion predomi- 
nated over all things. The counsellors, according to the usage of the time, 
took care to make marginal notes of the sources of their information ; and we 
are not aware that their doctrines have ever been condemned as heretical. 
These doctrines cannot, without manifest dishonesty, be confounded with those 
of many Protestants and modern revolutionists. A cursory perusal of these 
writings will enable any one to discover how widely they differ. By maintain- 
ing that it is not allowable in any case, in the greatest extremities, not even 
when the most precious and sacred interests are at stake, to offer resistance to 
the civil power, the thrones of kings are thought to be strengthened ; for it is 
generally kings that are spoken of. But it should be remembered, that this 
doctrine affects every other supreme power, under every form of government. 
Since the texts of Scripture recommending obedience " to the powers that be," 
do not allude to kings only, but to all supreme powers, without exception or 
distinction, it follows that resistance cannot in any case be offered to the pre- 
sident of a republic. Will it be said that the faculties of a president are 
determined ? Are not the faculties of a king also determined ? Are there 
not, in absolute governments, laws fixing the limits of these faculties ? And 
is not this the distinction constantly employed by the supporters of monarchy 
to repel the errors of their adversaries, who confound monarchy with despotism ? 
" But," it will be said, "the president of a republic is only temporary." And 
what if he were perpetual ? Besides, the faculties are neither increased nor 
diminished by the simple fact of their having to last a long or short period. 
If a council, a man, a family, is invested with a certain right, by virtue of a 
certain law; with certain restrictions, but with certain contracts and oaths; 
such a council, such a man or such a family is bound to adhere to the oath 

2 d 2 



342 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



taken, whatever be the extent of its duration, temporary or perpetual. Such 
are the principles of natural right ; so certain and simple, that they cannot 
present any difficulty. 

Theologians, even those most attached to the Sovereign Pontiff, teach a doc- 
trine which we must notice here, on account of the analogy it bears to the point 
under discussion. It is known that the Pope, when speaking ex cathedra, is 
acknowledged to be infallible, but not as a simple individual ; and that, in this 
latter capacity, he might fall into heresy. In this case, theologians are of 
opinion that he would forfeit his dignity ; some maintaining that he ought to 
be deposed, others that his deposition is the consequence of his having fallen 
from the faith. Whichever of these opinions be admitted, in this case resist- 
ance would become allowable, for this reason, that the Pope would have 
shamefully departed from the object of his institution, would have trampled on 
the basis of the laws of the Church, which is her dogmas, and would conse- 
quently have nullified the promises and oaths of obedience made to him. Spe- 
dalieri, in adducing this argument, observes, that kings are certainly not of 
higher rank than Popes, — that power has been granted to both in cedificationem 
non in iestructionem ; adding, that if Sovereign Pontiffs authorize this doctrine 
with relation to themselves, temporal sovereigns cannot object to its application 
to them. 

It is strange that the monarchical zeal of Protestants and incredulous philo- 
sophers imputes to the Catholic religion as a crime, that she has allowed it to 
be maintained within her bosom, that, in certain cases, the subject may be 
released from his oath of allegiance ; whilst other philosophers of the same 
school reproach it with having sanctioned despotism by its detestable doctrine 
of non-resistance, as Dr. Beatty expresses it. The direct, indirect, and decla- 
ratory poioers of the Popes have served as an admirable bugbear to intimidate 
kings ; the dangerous principles of theological works formed an excellent pre- 
text for raising the cry of alarm, for representing Catholicity as a nest of 
seditious maxims. The hour of revolutions was struck, — circumstances were 
changed, — fresh necessities arose, and men adapted their language to the 
times. The Catholics, a short time before seditious and regicidal, were then 
declared abettors of despotism, fulsome adulators of civil power. Recently, 
the Jesuits, leagued with the infernal policy of Rome, were everywhere under- 
mining thrones, to establish on their ruins the universal monarchy of the Pope ; 
but the secret of this horrid plot was discovered, and fortunately so, for the 
world was otherwise about to experience a frightful catastrophe. But now that 
the Jesuits are expelled, and are expiating their crimes in exile, the French 
Revolution, the prelude to so many others, breaks out, and the aspect of affairs 
changes immediately. Protestants and unbelievers, the supporters of ancient 
discipline, the zealous adversaries of the abuses of the Court of Borne, fully com- 
prehending the new situation of affairs, hasten to conform to it. From that 
moment, the Jesuits, the Catholics, the Pope, are no longer seditious or tyran- 
nicides, but Machiavelian supporters of tyranny, enemies of the liberty of the 
people ; and just as a league had been supposed to exist between the Jesuits 
and the Pope for the foundation of a universal theocracy, there is now discov- 
ered, thanks to the investigations of these eminent philosophers and strict, 
incorruptible Christians, an infamous pact between the Pope and kings to oppress, 
enslave, and degrade the unfortunate human race. 

The answer to this enigma may be thus briefly expressed. So long as kings 
maintain their power and the peaceable possession of their thrones, so long as 
Providence restrains the tempest, and the monarch, raising his proud head 
towards heaven, commands the people with a lofty air, the Catholic Church 
does not flatter him. " Thou art dust," she says to him, " and into dust thou 
shalt return power was given thee not unto destruction, but unto edification ; 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



843 



thy faculties are great, but not boundless. God is thy judge, as well as that 
of the lowest of thy subjects." The Church is then accused of insolence; and 
if any theologian should venture to investigate the origin of civil power, to 
point out, with generous freedom, the duties to which this power is subject; to 
write, in a word, with prudence upon public right, but without servility, the 
Catholics are then declared seditious. But the tempest bursts, thrones are 
overturned, revolution prevails, spills the blood of the people in torrents, cuts 
off royal heads, and all in the name of liberty. The Church says : " This is 
no liberty, but a succession of crimes ; the fraternity and equality which I have 
taught, were never your orgies and guillotines." The Church then becomes a 
vile flatterer; her words, her actions, have indubitably revealed that the 
Sovereign Pontiff is the surest anchor of despotism ; it has been proved that 
the Court of Rome has been polluted by an infamous pact. (33) 



CHAPTER LVIL 

POLITICAL SOCIETY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

We have already seen what has been the conduct of the Christian religion 
with respect to society ; that is to say, that not caring whether such or such 
political forms were established in a country, she has ever addressed herself to 
man, seeking to enlighten his understanding and to purify his heart, fully con- 
fident that when these objects were attained, society would naturally pursue a 
safe course. This is sufficient to obliterate the reproach imputed to her of 
being an enemy to the liberty of the people. 

Protestantism has certainly never revealed to the world a single dogma 
which exalts the dignity of man, nor created fresh motives of consideration 
and respect, or closer bonds of fraternity. The Reformation cannot, therefore, 
boast of having given the least impetus to the progress of modern nations ; it 
cannot, consequently, lay the least claim to the gratitude of the people in this 
respect. But as it frequently happens that people lay aside main points and 
set a great value on appearances ; and as Protestantism has been supposed to 
accord much better than Catholicity with those institutions in which it is usual 
to find guarantees for a high degree of liberty; we must draw a parallel. 
Besides, we cannot omit it without betraying an ignorance of the genius of 
this age, and authorizing the suspicion that Catholicity cannot derive any 
advantage from such a comparison. In the first place, I will observe, that 
those who look upon Protestantism as inseparable from public liberty do not 
in this respect agree with M. Guizot, who cannot certainly be accused of any 
want of sympathy for the Reformation. " In Germany," says this celebrated 
publicist, " far from demanding political liberty, it has accepted, I should not 
like to say political servitude, but the absence of liberty." (Hist. Gen. de la 
Civil, en Eur. le§. 12.) 

I quote M. Guizot, because in Spain we are so accustomed to translations, 
because we Spaniards have been led to suppose, that the best thing for us is to 
believe foreigners on their bare word ; because amongst us, in questions of 
importance, it is necessary to have recourse to foreign authorities ; and hence, 
a writer who appears to slight such authorities, exposes himself to the risk of 
being treated as an ignoramus, as one behind the age. Besides, with a certain 
class of writers, the authority of M. Guizot is decisive. In fact, a multitude 
of publications have appeared amongst us bearing the title of " Philosophy of 
History," whose authors, it is quite clear, have used the works of that French 
writer as their text-books. Is this assertion, that Protestantism is the natural 
bulwark of liberty, true or false, accurate or inaccurate ? What do history and 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



philosophy teach us on this point ? Has Protestantism advanced the popular 
cause, by contributing to the establishment and development of liberal forms 
of government ? To place the question in its true light, and discuss it tho- 
loughly, we must take a view of the state of Europe at the close of the fifteenth 
century, and at the beginning of the sixteenth. It is incontestable that indi- 
viduals and society were then making rapid progress towards perfection. We 
have sufficient evidence of this fact in the wonderful march of intellect at this 
period, in the numerous measures of improvement effected at that epoch, and 
in the better organization everywhere introduced. This organization is doubt- 
less still imperfect ; but it is nevertheless such as cannot be likened to that of 
former times. If we carefully examine into the state of society at that epoch, 
as represented either in the writings or in the events of the time, we shall 
observe a certain restlessness, anxiety, and fermentation, which, while they 
indicated the existence of vast wants not yet satisfied, were evidence also of a 
tolerably distinct knowledge of those wants. Far from discovering in the men 
of that period a contempt or forgetfulness of their rights and dignity, or any 
discouragement and pusillanimity at the sight of obstacles, we find them 
abounding in foresight and ingenuity, swayed by lofty and sublime thoughts, 
fired with noble sentiments, and animated with intrepid and ardent courage. 
The progress of European society at that epoch was very rapid; three very 
remarkable circumstances contributed to render it so : 1. The introduction of 
the whole body of men to the rank of citizens, as a necessary consequence of 
the abolition of slavery and the decline of feudality; 2. The very nature of civi- 
lization, in which every thing advances together and abreast; 3. In fine, the 
existence of a means for increasing its development and rapidity — this means 
was the art of printing. To make use of a physico-mathematical expression, 
we may say, that the amount of motion must have been very considerable, since 
it was the product of the mass by the rapidity, and that the mass, as well as 
the rapidity, were then very considerable. 

This powerful movement, which proceeds from good, is in itself good, and 
is productive of good, is, however, accompanied by inconveniences and perils ; 
it raises flattering hopes, but it also inspires apprehensions and fears. The 
people of Europe are an ancient people, but they may be said to have become 
young again ; their inclinations, their wants, urge them to great enterprises ; 
and they enter upon them with the ardor of an impetuous and inexperienced 
young man, feeling in his breast a great heart, and in his head the lively spark 
of genius. In this situation, a great problem presents itself for solution, viz., 
to find the most proper means for directing society without impeding its pro- 
gress ; and for conducting it by a way free from precipices to the objects of its 
aim, intelligence, morality, felicity. A slight glance at this problem startles us 
at its immense extent ; so numerous are the objects it embraces, the relations 
it bears, the obstacles and difficulties with which it is beset. Considering this 
question attentively, and comparing it with man's weakness, the mind is ready 
to lose courage and despond. The problem, however, exists, not as a scientific 
speculation, but as a real and urgent necessity. In such a case, society is like 
individuals ; it attempts, essays, and makes efforts to get clear of the difficulty 
as well as possible. 

Man's civil state improves daily; but to maintain this improvement, and to 
perfect it, requires a means : and this is the problem of political forms. What 
ought these forms to be ? And, above all, what elements can we make use 
of? What is the respective force of these elements ? What are their tenden- 
cies, their relations, their affinities ? How shall they be combined ? Monarchy, 
Aristocracy, Democracy — these three powers present themselves at the same 
time to dispute for the direction and government of society. They are certainly 
not equal, either in force, means of action, or in practical intelligence ; but 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



345 



they all command our respect, they have all pretensions to a preponderance 
more or less decisive, and none of them are without the probability of obtaining 
it. This simultaneous concurrrence of pretensions, this rivalship of three 
powers so different in their nature and aim, forms one of the leading features 
of this epoch. It is, as it were, in a great measure the key to the principal 
events ; and, in spite of the various aspects presented by this feature, it may 
be signalized as a general fact among all the civilized portion of the nations 
of Europe. 

Before proceeding further in our examination of this subject, the mere indi- 
cation of such a fact suggests the reflection, that it must be very incorrect to 
say that Catholicity has tendencies opposed to the true liberty of the people ; 
for we see that European civilization, which, during so many ages, was under 
the influence and guardianship of this religion, did not then present one single 
principle of government exclusively predominating. Survey the whole of 
Europe at this period, and you will not find one country in which the same 
fact did not exist. In Spain, France, England, Germany, under the names 
of Cortes, States-G-eneral, Parliaments, or Diets ; the same thing everywhere, 
with the simple modifications which necessarily result from circumstances 
adapted to each people. What is very remarkable in this case is, that if there 
be a single exception, it is in favor of liberty ; and, strange to say, it exists 
precisely in Italy, where the influence of the Popes is immediately felt. The 
names of the Republics of Genoa, Pisa, Sienna, Florence, Venice, are familiar to 
all. It is well known that Italy is the country in which popular forms at that 
period gained most ground, and in which they were put in practice, whilst in 
other countries they had already abandoned the field. I do not mean to say 
that the Italian Republics were a model worthy of being imitated by the 
other nations of Europe. I am well aware that these forms of government 
were attended with grave inconveniences; but since so much is said of spirit 
and tendencies, since the Catholic Church is reproached with her affinity to 
despotism, and the Popes with a taste for oppression, it is well to adduce those 
facts which may serve to throw some doubt upon certain authoritative asser- 
tions, adduced as so many philosophico-historical dogmas. If Italy preserved 
her independence in spite of the efforts of the Emperors of Germany to wrest 
it from her, she owed it in a great part to the firmness and energy of the Popes. 

In order to comprehend fully the relations which Catholicity bears to political 
institutions, in order to ascertain what degree of affinity it bears to such and 
such forms, and to form a correct idea of the influence of Protestantism in this 
respect over European civilization, we must examine carefully and in detail 
each of the elements claiming preponderance. When we examine them after- 
wards in their relations with each other, we will ascertain, as far as possible, 
where the truth lies in this shapeless mass. Every one of these three may be 
considered in two ways : 1. According to the ideas formed of them at the period 
we are speaking of; 2. According to the interests these elements represent, and 
the part they play in society. We must lay particular stress upon this dis- 
tinction, without which we should expose ourselves to the commission of serious 
errors. In fact, the ideas which were entertained upon such or such principles 
of government did not coincide with the interest represented by this same 
element, and with the part it acted in society ; and although it is clear that 
these two things must have had very close relations with each other, and could 
not be disengaged from a real and reciprocal influence, yet it is most certain 
that they differ considerably, and that this difference, the source of very various 
considerations, shows the subject in points of view quite dissimilar. 



346 



CHAPTER LVIIL 

MONARCHY IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

The idea of monarchy has ever existed in the bosom of European society, 
even at the time when the least use was made of it ; and it is worthy of remark, 
that at the time when its energy was taken away, and it was destroyed in 
practice, it still retained its force in theory. We cannot say that our ancestors 
had any very fixed notions upon the nature of the object represented by this 
idea ; nor can we wonder at it, since the continual variations and modifications 
which they witnessed must have prevented them from forming any very correct 
knowledge of it. Nevertheless, if we peruse the codes in places where monarchy 
is treated of, and if we consult the writings which have been preserved upon 
this matter, we shall find that their ideas on this point were more fixed than 
might have been imagined. By studying the manner of thinking of this period, 
we find that men in general were almost destitute of analytical knowledge, 
being more erudite than philosophical ; so much so, that they scarcely ventured 
to express an idea without supporting it by a multitude of authorities. This 
taste for erudition, which is visible at the first glance into their writings — a 
mere tissue of quotations — and which must have been very natural, since it 
was so general and lasting, had very advantageous results ; not the least of 
which was the uniting of ancient with modern society, by the preservation of 
a great number of records and memorials, which, had it not been for this public 
taste, must have been destroyed, and by exhuming from the dust the remains 
of antiquity about to perish. But, on the other hand, it produced many evils; 
amongst others, a sort of stifling of thought, which could no longer indulge in 
its own inspirations, although they may have been more happy than the ancient 
ones on some points. 

However it may be, such is the fact : on examining it in relation to the 
matter under discussion, we find that monarchy was represented at that time 
as one single picture, in which there appeared at the same time the kings of 
the Jews and the Roman emperors, whose features had been corrected by the 
hand of Christianity. That is to say, the principles of monarchy were com- 
posed of the teachings of Scripture and the Roman codes. Seek every where 
the idea of emperor, king, or prince, you will always find the same thing, 
whether you look for the origin of power, its extent, its exercise, or its object. 
But what ideas were entertained of monarchy ? What was the acceptation of 
this word ? Taken in a general sense, abstractedly from the various modifica- 
tions which a variety of circumstances gave to its signification, it meant, the 
supreme command over society, vested in the hands of one man, who was to exercise 
it according to reason and justice. This was the leading idea, the only one 
fixed, as a sort of pole, round which all other questions revolved. Did the 
monarch possess in himself the faculty of making laws without consulting 
general assemblies, which, under different names, represented the different 
classes of the kingdom ? From the moment that we propose this question we 
come upon new ground. We have descended from theory to practice ; we have 
brought our ideas into contact with the object to which they are to be applied. 
From that moment, we must allow, every thing vacillates and becomes obscure ; 
a thousand incoherent, strange, and contradictory facts pass before our eyes ; 
the parchments upon which are inscribed the rights, liberties, and laws of the 
people give rise to a variety of interpretations, which multiply doubts and 
increase difficulties. We see, in the first place, that the relations of the 
monarch with the subject, or, more properly speaking, the mode in which 
government should be exercised, was not very well defined. The confusion 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 347 

from which society was emerging was still felt, and was inevitable in an aggre- 
gation of heterogeneous bodies, in a combination of rival and hostile elements ; 
that is, we discover an embryo, and consequently it is impossible as yet to find 
regular and well-defined forms. 

Did this idea of monarchy contain any thing of despotism, any thing that 
subjected one man to the dominion of another by setting aside the eternal laws 
of reason and justice? No; from the moment that we touch upon this point 
we discover a new horizon, clear and transparent, upon which objects present 
themselves distinctly, without a shade of dimness or obscurity. The answer 
of all writers is decisive : Rule ought to be conformable to reason and justice ; 
if it is not, it is mere tyranny. So that the principle maintained by M. Guizot, 
in his Discours sur la Democratie moderne, and in his History of Civilisation in 
Europe, viz. that the will alone does not constitute a right; that laws, to be 
laws, should accord with those of eternal reason, the only source of all legiti- 
mate power ; — that this principle, I say, which we might imagine to be newly 
applied to society, is as ancient as the world. Acknowledged by ancient 
philosophers, developed, inculcated, and applied by Christianity, we find it in 
every page of jurists and theologians. 

But we know what this principle was worth in the monarchies of antiquity, 
and also in our own days in countries where Christianity has not yet been 
established. Who, in such countries, presumes continually to remind kings 
of their obligation to be just ? Observe, on the contrary, what is the case 
among Christians: the words 'reason' and * justice' are constantly in the 
mouth of the subject, because he knows that no one has a right to treat him 
unreasonably or unjustly ; and this he knows, because Christianity has impressed 
him with a profound idea of his own dignity, because it has accustomed him to 
look upon reason and justice, not as vain words, but as eternal characters 
engraven on the heart of man by the hand of God, perpetually reminding man 
that, although he is a frail creature, subject to error and to weakness, he is, 
nevertheless, stamped with the image of eternal truth and of immutable justice. 
If any one should question the truth of what I have advanced, it will suflice, 
to convince him, to remind him of the numerous texts previously cited in this 
work, and in which the most eminent Catholic writers bear testimony to their 
manner of thinking on the origin and faculties of civil power. 

So much for ideas ; as for facts, they vary according to times and countries. 
During the incursions of the barbarians, and so long as the feudal system 
prevailed, monarchy remained much beneath its typical idea ; but during the 
course of the sixteenth century, matters assumed a different aspect. In Germany, 
France, England, and Spain, powerful monarchs were reigning, who filled the 
world with the fame of their names ; in their presence aristocracy and democracy 
bowed with humility; or if by chance they ventured to raise their heads, it 
was only to suffer still greater degradation. The throne, it is true, had not yet 
attained that ascendency of power and importance which it acquired in the 
following century; but its destiny was irrevocably fixed — power and glory 
awaited it. Aristocracy and democracy might have labored to take part in 
future events ; but it would have been labor in vain for them to attempt to 
appropriate them. A fixed and powerful centre was essential to European 
society, and monarchy completely satisfied this imperative necessity. The 
people understood and felt it ; hence we find them eagerly grasping at this 
saving principle, and placing themselves under the safeguard of the throne. 

The question is not, therefore, whether or not the throne ought to exist, or 
whether it ought to preponderate over aristocracy and democracy : these two 
questions have been already resolved. At the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, its existence and preponderance were already necessary. The question 
to be resolved is, whether the throne ought so decisively to have prevailed, 



348 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



that the two elements, aristocracy and democracy, should be erased from the 
political world ; whether the combination which had hitherto existed was still 
to exist : or, whether these two elements should disappear ; whether monarchical 
power should be absolute. The Church resisted royal power when it attempted 
to lay hands upon sacred things ; but her zeal never carried her so far as to 
depreciate, in the eys of the people, an authority which was so essential to them. 
On the contrary, besides continually giving to the power of kings a more 
solid basis, by her doctrines favorable to all legitimate authority, she en- 
deavored to give them a still more sacred character by the august ceremonies 
displayed at their coronations. The Church has been sometimes accused of 
anarchical tendencies, for having energetically struggled against the pretensions 
of sovereigns ; by some, on the contrary, she has been reproached with fa- 
voring despotism, because she preached up to the people the duty of obedi- 
ence to the lawful authorities. If I mistake not, these accusations, so opposite 
to each other, prove that the Church has neither been adulatory nor anarchical ; 
she has maintained the balance even, by telling the truth both to kings and 
their subjects. 

Let the spirit of sectarianism seek, on all sides, historical facts, to prove 
that the Popes have attempted to destroy civil monarchy by confiscating it to 
their own profit. But let us bear in mind what the Protestant Miiller says, 
that the Father of the faithful was, during the barbarous ages, a tutor sent by 
God to the European nations ; and let us not be astonished to find that dif- 
ferences have sometimes occurred between him and his pupils. To discover 
the intention which dictated these reproaches against the Court of Rome, 
relative to monarchy, we need only reflect upon the following question. All 
writers consider as a great benefit the creation of a strong central authority, 
and yet circumscribed within just limits that it may not abuse its power; 
they laud to the skies every thing tending, directly or indirectly, among all 
the nations of Europe, to establish such an authority. Why, then, when 
speaking of the conduct of Popes, do they attribute to a pretended taste for 
despotism the support which they give to royal authority, whilst they qualify 
with anarchical usurpation their efforts to restrain, upon certain points, the 
faculties of sovereigns ? The answer is not difficult. (34) 



CHAPTER LIX. 

THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

The aristocracy, as including the privileged portion of society, comprehended 
two classes very distinct in their origin and nature, the nobility and the clergy. 
Both abounded in power and riches ; both were placed far above the people, 
and were important wheels in the political machine. There was, however, this 
remarkable difference between them, that the principal basis of the power and 
grandeur of the Clergy was religious ideas — ideas which circulated throughout 
society, which animated it, gave it life, and consequently insured for a long 
time the preponderance of the ecclesiastical power; whilst the grandeur and 
influence of the nobles rested solely upon a fact necessarily transient, viz. the 
social organization of the epoch — an organization which was becoming rapidly 
modified, since the people were then struggling to liberate themselves from the 
bonds of feudalism. I do not mean, that the nobles did not possess legitimate 
rights to the power and influence which they exercised ; but merely that the 
principal portion of these rights, even supposing them founded upon the most 
just laws and titles, was not necessarily connected with any of the great con- 
servative principles of society — those principles which invest with an immense 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



349 



force and ascendency the person or class which in any way represents them. 
But we touch here upon a subject little investigated, and upon the explanation 
of which depends the comprehension of great social facts. It is vpell, therefore, 
to develope it fully, and to examine it attentively. 

Of what was monarchy the representative ? Of a principle eminently con- 
servative of society — a principle which has withstood all the attacks of theories 
and revolutions, and to which have been attached, as the only anchor of safety, 
those very nations in the bosom of which democratical ideas were diffused, and 
in which liberal institutions originated. This is one of the causes why 
monarchy, even in its most calamitous times, triumphed over its disasters. 
Feudal pride, and the unsettled state of the times, with the agitation of rising 
democracy, united to oppress it ; scarcely was its power distinguishable amid 
the troubled waves of society, like the broken mast of a shipwrecked vessel. 
But, even at this time, we find the ideas of force and power bound to those of 
monarchy. Regal dignity was trampled under foot and outraged in various 
ways, but still held sacred and recognised as inviolable. Theory was not in 
accordance with practice ; the idea was more forcible than the fact which it 
expressed : but we need not be astonished at this phenomenon, since such is 
always the character of ideas producing great changes. They are, at first, 
merely visible in society ; they spread, take root, and penetrate into all insti- 
tutions; time continues to prepare the way; and if the idea is just and moral, 
if it point to the satisfaction of a want, the moment at length comes in which 
facts give way, the idea triumphs, and bends and humbles all before it. This 
was the case, in the sixteenth century, with regard to monarchy ; under one 
form or another, with greater or less modifications, it was actually essential to 
the people, as it is still; and for this reason it naturally prevailed over all its 
adversaries, and survived all accidents. 

With respect to the clergy, we need not attempt to show that they were the 
representatives of the religious principle — a real social necessity for all the 
nations of the earth, when taken in its general sense ; and a real social neces- 
sity for the nations of Europe, when taken in its Christian sense. 

We have already seen that the nobility could not be compared either to 
monarchy or to the clergy, since they were destitute of the high principles 
represented by each of these bodies. Extensive privileges, and the ancient 
possession of great estates, with the guarantee of the laws and customs of the 
time ; glorious traditions of military feats, pompous names, titles, and escutch- 
eons of illustrious ancestors; such were the insignia of the lay aristocracy. But 
nothing of all this had any direct and essential relation with the great wants 
of society. The nobility depended upon a particular organization, necessarily 
transient ; they were too nearly allied to a law purely positive and human, to 
be able to reckon upon a long duration, or to flatter themselves with success in 
all their pretensions and exigencies. It will be objected, perhaps, that the 
existence of an intermediate class between the monarch and the people is an 
essential necessity, acknowledged by all publicists, and founded upon the very 
nature of things. In fact, we have seen that in nations from which the ancient 
aristocracy has disappeared, a new one has been formed, either by the course 
of events or by the action of governments. But this objection is not appli- 
cable to the question in the point of view under which I consider it. I do not 
deny the necessity of an intermediate class ; I merely affirm that the ancient 
nobility, such as it was, did not contain elements to ensure its duration, since 
it was liable to be replaced by another, as it has been in effect. The classes 
of the laity acquire their political and social importance from a superiority of 
intellect and force ; this superiority no longer existing in the nobility, its fall 
was inevitable. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the throne and the 
people daily acquired a greater ascendency ; the former became the centre of 

2E 



350 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



all social forces, and the people were constantly enriching themselves by 
industry and commerce. With regard to learning, the discovery of printing, 
as it became ^|neral, prevented it from being henceforth the exclusive patri- 
mony of any particular class. 

It was evident, therefore, that the nobility perceived, at this epoch, their 
ancient power escaping, and possessed no other means of preserving a part of 
it than to struggle to preserve the titles which it had given them. Unfor- 
tunately for them, their wealth was daily decreasing, not only from the dilapi- 
dations occasioned by luxury, but also from the extraordinary increase of 
non-territorial riches ; the profound changes wrought in the value of every 
thing by means of the re-organization of society and the discovery of America 
caused immovable property to lose much of its importance. If the force of 
landed property was gradually diminishing, the rights of jurisdiction were 
marching still more rapidly towards their ruin. On one hand, these rights 
were opposed by the power of kings ; and, on the other, by municipalities and 
other centres of action possessed by the popular element ; so that, in spite of 
the most profound respect for acquired rights, and merely by allowing things 
to take their ordinary course, the ancient nobility was inevitably sunk to that 
point of depression in which it now exists. This could not happen to the 
clergy. Despoiled of their wealth, entirely or partially deprived of their pri- 
vileges, there still remained for them the ministry of religion. No one could 
exercise this ministry without them ; which was sufficient to insure them great 
influence in spite of all commotions and changes. 



CHAPTER LX. 

ON DEMOCRACY. 

Such was the situation of Europe during the centuries preceding the six- 
teenth, that it appears difficult to find for democracy a well-defined place in 
political theories. Stifled by the established powers, deprived as yet of the 
resources which, in time, gave it the ascendency, it was natural it should be 
almost unobserved by politicians. It was in reality very feeble ; and it was 
not, therefore, surprising that, owing to the influence of reality over ideas, 
theorists should regard the people merely as an abject portion of society, 
unworthy of honors or happiness, and fit only to labor and to serve. It is, 
however, worthy of remark, that ideas from that time took a new direction \ it 
may even be affirmed that they were infinitely more elevated and more gener- 
ous than facts. This is one of the most convincing proofs of the intellectual 
development that Christianity had operated amongst men — one of the most 
unexceptionable testimonies in favor of that profound sentiment of reason and 
justice which it had deposited in the heart of society. Now these elements 
were not to be stifled by events the most unfavorable, nor by the rudest shocks ; 
for they were supported upon the very dogmas of religion, which still remain 
firm, in spite of all commotion, as an immovable axis remains fixed in the midst 
of broken machinery. 

In perusing the writings of this epoch, we find established, as an indubitable 
fact, the right of the people to the administration of justice ; they were not to 
be irritated by any vexatious regulations ; the public imposts were to be equally 
divided ; no one was to be forced to do any thing contrary to reason or the 
well-being of society : that is to say, these writers acknowledged and established 
all those principles upon which were to be based the laws and customs destined 
one day to produce civil liberty. This is so true, that, in proportion as cir- 
cumstances permitted, these principles were rapidly and extensively developed ; 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



351 



vast and numerous applications were immediately made of them ; and civil 
liberty took such deep root among the people of modern Europe, that it has 
never been erased from their bosoms j and we see it preserved in forms of abso- 
lute government as well as in the mixed forms. 

To complete my demonstration, that the ideas in favor of the people pro- 
ceeded from Christianity, I will adduce a reason which appears to me decisive. 
The philosophy adopted by the schools of that period was that of Aristotle. 
Aristotle's authority was of great weight; he was called by an autonomasia, 
the Philosopher ; a good commentary of his works was considered the highest 
point to be attained in these matters. And yet, so far as the relations of 
society were concerned, the doctrines of the Stagyrite were not adopted; 
Christian writers took a higher and more generous view of mankind. Aris- 
totle's degrading doctrines upon man born to servitude, destined to this end 
even by nature, anterior to all legislation ; his horrible doctrines upon infanti- 
cide ; his theories, which at one blow deprived all those who professed the 
mechanical arts of the title of citizen; in a word, those monstrous systems, 
which the ancient philosophers unconsciously learned from the society which 
surrounded them, were utterly rejected by Christian philosophers. The man 
who had just perused Aristotle's work on Politics took up his Bible, or the 
works of the Fathers : the authority of Aristotle was great, but that of the 
Church was still greater ; the works of the pagan philosopher must be inter- 
preted piously, or abandoned ; in either case the rights of humanity were saved, 
and this was an effect of the preponderating force of the Catholic faith. 

The system of castes most forcibly contributes to arrest the development of 
the popular element, by condemning the majority of the people of a country 
to a state of perpetual abjection and slavery. In this system, honors, riches, 
and command are confined and transferred from father to son ; a barrier sepa- 
rates men from each other, and ends in causing the most powerful to be con- 
sidered as belonging to a superior class of beings. The Church has ever 
opposed the introduction of so fatal a system, and to apply the word caste to 
the clergy would betray an ignorance of its meaning. On this subject M. 
Guizot has done ample justice to the cause of truth. He expresses himself in 
the following manner in the fifth lecture of his Histoire generate de la Civilisa- 
tion en Europe: " With regard to the mode of formation and transmission of 
power in the Church, there is a word," says he, " much used in speaking of 
the Christian clergy, and which I am under the obligation of discarding ; it is 
the word caste. The body of ecclesiastical magistrates has often been called a 
caste. This expression is not correct ; the idea of heirship is inherent in that 
of caste. Travel over the world ; take all those countries in which the system 
of castes exists, in India, in Egypt, you will find everywhere the caste essentially 
hereditary ; it is the transmission of the same situation, of the same power, 
from father to son. Where heirship does not exist, there is no caste, there is 
a corporation ; the spirit of corporate bodies has its inconveniences, but it is 
very different from that of castes. The word caste cannot be applied to the 
Christian Church. The celibacy of the clergy has prevented them from 
becoming a caste. You perceive already the consequences of this difference. A 
system of caste, and the existence of hereditary succession, inevitably involve 
the idea of privileges. The very definition of a caste implies privileges. When 
the same functions, the same powers, become hereditary in the same families, 
it is evident that privileges follow, and that no one can acquire such functions 
and powers unless he is born to them. This, in fact, is what has taken place : 
wherever religious government has fallen into the hands of a caste, it has 
become a privilege ; no one has been permitted to enter it but the members of 
families belonging to the caste. Nothing of this has ever occurred in the 
Christian Church ; on the contrary, she has ever maintained the equal admissi- 



352 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



bility of all men, whatever their origin, to all her functions, to all her dignities 
The ecclesiastical state, particularly from the fifth to the twelfth century, was 
open to all. The Church was recruited from all ranks, from the inferior as 
well as from the superior, — more commonly even from the inferior. She alone 
resisted the system of castes ; she alone maintained the principle of equality 
of competition ; she alone called all legitimate superiors to the possession of 
power. This is the first grand result naturally produced by the fact that she 
was a corporation, and not a caste." 

This splendid passage of the French writer completely vindicates the Catholic 
Church from the reproach of exclusiveness with which it had been attempted 
to stain her ; it presents to me also the opportunity of making some reflections 
upon the beneficial effects of Catholicity upon the development of civilization 
in favor of the plebeian classes. We are not ignorant of the numerous decla- 
mations against religious celibacy which have proceeded from the mouths of the 
pretended defenders of the rights of humanity ; but is it not strange that they 
forget, as M. G-uizot justly observes, that celibacy is exactly what has prevented 
the Christian clergy from becoming a caste ? Let us examine, in fact, what 
would have been the case on the contrary supposition. At the time to which 
we refer, the ascendency of religious power was unlimited, and the wealth of 
the Church considerable ; that is to say, she possessed every thing necessary 
for enabling a caste to establish its preponderance and stability. What further 
was needful, therefore ? Hereditary succession, nothing more j and this would 
have been established by the marriage of the clergy. What I here affirm is 
no vain conjecture, it is a positive fact, which I can render evident by bringing 
forward historical proof. From certain remarkable regulations in ecclesiastical 
legislation, we learn that it required all the energy of pontifical authority to 
prevent this succession from being introduced. Every thing, in fine, tended to 
such an end; and if the Church preserved itself from such a calamity, it was 
owing to the horror which she always entertained of this fatal custom. Read 
the 17th chapter of the first book of the Decretals of Gregory IX. ; the ponti- 
fical regulations therein contained prove that the evil here spoken of presented 
alarming symptoms. The pope makes use of the strongest terms possible to be 
found : " Ad enormitatem istam eradicandam," u observato Apostolici rescripti 
decreto quod successionem in Ecclesia Dei hereditariam detestatur." " Ad ex- 
tirpandas successiones a Sanctis Dei Ecclesiis studio totius sollicitudinis debemus 
intendere." 11 Quia igitur in Ecclesia successiones, et in prselaturis et dignita- 
tibus ecclesiasticis statutis canonicis damnantur" These expressions, and others 
of a like nature, clearly show that the danger was already considered serious, 
and justify the prudence of the Holy See in reserving to itself the exclusive 
right of granting dispensations on this point. 

It required the continual vigilance of the pontifical authority to prevent this 
abuse from making daily progress, for it was urged on by the most powerful 
feelings of nature. Four centuries had elapsed since these measures had been 
taken, and yet we find that, in 1533, Pope Clement VII. was obliged to restrict 
a canon of Alexander III. in order to prevent grave scandals, grievously 
lamented by the pious Pontiff. Suppose that the Church had not opposed such 
an abuse with all her force, and that the custom had become general ) bear in 
mind also, that in those ages of the grossest ignorance, the privileged classes 
were every thing, and the people had scarcely a civil existence; and see 
whether there would not have been formed an ecclesiastical caste along with 
that of the nobility, and whether both, united by the bonds of family and 
common interest, would not have opposed an invincible obstacle to the ulterior 
development of the plebeian class, plunging European society into that degrada- 
tion in which Asiatic society now exists. Such would have been the consequence 
of the marriage of the clergy, if the pretended reform had been realized a few 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



353 



centuries sooner. When it came, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
it found European society in a great measure formed ; it had to contend against 
an adult, who could not easily be made to forget his ideas and change his 
habits. What has actually taken place may lead us to infer what would have 
taken place. In England, a close alliance was formed between the lay aristo- 
cracy and the Protestant clergy ; and what is very remarkable, we have seen, 
and we still see, in that country, something resembling castes, with the modifica- 
tions which must necessarily ensue from the great development of a certain 
kind of civilization and liberty at which Great Britain has arrived. 

If the clergy in the middle age, establishing their perpetuity by hereditary 
succession, had constituted themselves an exclusive class, would not the aristo- 
cratic alliance of which we are speaking have been a natural consequence ? 
And who would thenceforth have been able to break this alliance ? The enemies 
of the Church interpret all her discipline, and even some of her dogmas, by 
imputing to her ulterior designs ; and hence they consider the law of celibacy 
as the result of an interested design. It was easy to see, however, that if the 
Church had entertained worldly views, she might have selected as a model 
those priests of other religions who have formed a separate, preponderating, 
and exclusive class, for which the severity of duty did not form a brazen wall 
against the enjoyments of nature. Europe, it will be objected, is not Asia. 
This is true; but the Europe of our days, and even that of the sixteenth 
century, is no longer the Europe of the middle ages. In those centuries, in 
which none but the clergy could read and write, and in which knowledge was 
exclusively in their possession, had they wished to plunge the world into dark- 
ness, they had only to extinguish the torch with which they were enlightening 
it. It is also very certain, that celibacy has given to the clergy a moral force 
and ascendency which they could not have attained by any other means. But 
this only proves that the Church has preferred moral to physical power, and 
that the spirit of her institutions is to act by exercising a direct influence upon 
the intelligence and heart of man. Now, is it not eminently praiseworthy to 
use all possible moral means for the direction of mankind ? Is it not an honor 
to the Catholic clergy to have accomplished, by institutions severe against 
themselves, what they might have realized in part by systems indulgent to 
their own passions and degrading to others ? Oh, we see here the work of Him 
who will remain with His Church till the end of the world. 

Whatever may be the value of these reflections, it cannot be contested, that 
where Christianity has not existed, the people have been the victims of a small 
number, whose contempt and insults have been the only recompense of their 
labors. Consult history and experience; the fact is general and constant; 
there is not an exception even in those ancient republics so vaunted for their 
liberty. Under liberal forms, slavery existed; a slavery properly so called 
for some men ; a slavery glossed over with fine appearances for that turbulent 
multitude who served the caprice of the Tribunes, and believed they were exer- 
cising their sublime rights by condemning to ostracism or to death the most 
virtuous citizens. It has sometimes happened that, among the Christians, 
appearances were not in favor of liberty, but things were so in reality, if we 
understand by the word liberty the empire of just laws, aiming at the well- 
being of the multitude, and founded upon the consideration and profound 
respect due to the rights of mankind. Observe the grand phases of European 
society at the time when Catholicity exclusively predominated. With various 
forms, distinct origins, different inclinations, they all follow the same course ; 
all tend to favor the cause of the multitude ; whatever has this for its aim. en- 
dures ; whatever has not, perishes. Whence comes it that this was not the case 
in other countries ? If evident reasons and palpable facts, moreover, did not 
manifest the salutary influence of the religion of Jesus Christ, so remarkable 
45 2 e 2 



354 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITEE CATHOLICITY. 



a coincidence would suffice to suggest grave reflections to those, who medi- 
tate upon the cause and character of the events which change or modify the 
destiny of mankind. Let those who represent Catholicity as the enemy of 
the people, point out to us a single doctrine of the Church sanctioning the 
abuses under which the people were suffering, or the injustice which oppressed 
them. Let them show us whether, at the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, when Europe was under the exclusive domination of the Catholic 
religion, the people were not as far advanced as they could be, considering the 
ordinary course of things. They certainly did not possess so much wealth as 
they have since acquired, and their knowledge was not so extensive as in modern 
times ; but is the progress which has been made in this respect attributable to 
Protestantism ? Was not the sixteenth century commenced under more favor- 
able auspices than the fifteenth, and the latter under better auspices than 
the fourteenth ? This proves that Europe, under the shield of Catholicity, con- 
tinued in a progressive march ; that the cause of the multitude suffered no 
prejudice from the influence of Catholicity; and that if great ameliorations 
have since been effected, they have not been a consequence of what is called 
the Reformation. 

It is the development of industry and commerce that has most powerfully 
contributed to elevate modern democracy, by diminishing the preponderance 
of the aristocratic classes. I do not touch upon the events which took place 
in Europe before the appearance of Protestantism • but I see at a glance that, 
far from impeding such a movement, Catholic doctrines and institutions must 
have favored it, since, under their shield and protection, the manufacturing 
and mercantile interests were surprisingly developed. No one is ignorant of 
their astonishing success in Spain : and we cannot attribute this progress to 
the Moors; for Catalonia, subject exclusively to the Catholic influence, evinced 
such activity, prosperity, and intelligence in industry and commerce, that we 
could scarcely believe to what a state of perfection they had arrived, did not 
unexceptionable documents bear ample testimony to the fact. Read the Histori- 
cal Memoirs of the Marine, Commerce, and Arts of the ancient City of Ba rcelona, 
Iby our celebrated Capmany. May we not account it an honor to belong to 
this Catalonian nation, whose ancestors displayed such zeal in all things, never 
allowing other nations to surpass them in the march of civilization and im- 
provement ? Whilst this phenomenon was advancing in the south of Europe, 
the association of the Hanseatic towns, the origin of which is lost in the centu- 
ries of the middle ages, was created in the north. It obtained in time such an 
amount of power as to measure its force with that of kings. Its rich factories, 
established all over Europe, and favored with many advantageous privileges, 
elevated it to the rank of a real power. Not satisfied with the power which it 
enjoyed in its own country, and in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, it extended 
it to England and Russia. London and Novogorod admired the splendid 
establishments of those intrepid merchants, who, by means of their wealth, 
obtained exorbitant privileges; who had their own magistrates, and formed an 
independent state in the centre of foreign countries. 

It is very remarkable that the Hanseatic league selected religious commu- 
nities as their model, in all that concerned the system of life of the clerks in 
their counting-houses. Their clerks ate in common, had common dormitories, 
and none of them were allowed to marry. Any one of them transgressing this 
law, forfeited his rights to remain a member or a citizen of the Hanseatic 
Confederation. In France, the manufacturing classes were also organized, the 
better to resist the elements of dissolution existing in their bosom ; and this 
change, so fruitful in results, is entirely due to a king venerated upon the 
altars of the Catholic Church. The Establishment for the Trades of Paris gave 
a powerful impetus to the industrial classes, by augmenting their intelligence 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



355 



and improving their morals; and whatever were the abuses that crept into 
that organization, it cannot be denied that St. Louis satisfactorily supplied a 
great want, by organizing the trades in the best manner possible, considering 
how little progress had at that time been made. What shall we say of Italy, 
containing within its bosom the powerful republics of Venice, Florence, Genoa, 
and Pisa ? It is difficult to conceive what progress industry had made in this 
peninsula, and, as a natural consequence, what a development the democratical 
element received. Had the influence in itself been so oppressive, had the 
breath of the Roman court been fatal to the progress of the people, is it not 
evident that its effects would have been particularly felt in those countries 
which were the scene of its actions ? Whence comes it, then, that whilst a 
great part of Europe was groaning under feudal oppression, the middle class, 
whose only title to nobility was the fruit of their intelligence and labor, 
appeared in Italy so powerful, so brilliant and flourishing ? I will not contend 
that this development was attributable to the Popes ; but, at least, we must 
grant that they never opposed it. 

Now, if we observe a similar phenomenon in Spain, and particularly in 
Aragon, where the Pontifical influence was great; if the same thing is observ- 
able in the north of Europe, inhabited by people whom Catholicity alone has 
civilized; if, in fine, the same phenomenon is realized, with greater or less 
rapidity, in all countries exclusively subject to the belief and authority of the 
Church, we may conclude that Catholicity contains nothing opposed to the 
movement of civilization, and that it is not opposed to a just and legitimate 
development of the popular element. 

I cannot think how it is possible for any one who has read history to accord 
to Protestantism the honor of being favorable to the interests of the multitude. 
Its origin was essentially aristocratic ; and in those countries in which it has 
succeeded in taking root, it has established aristocracy upon such firm founda- 
tions, that the revolutions of three centuries have not been able to overturn it. 
Witness, for a proof of this, what has taken place in Germany, England, and 
all the north of Europe. It has been said that Calvinism is more favorable to 
the democratical element ; and that if it had prevailed in France it would have 
established a system of federative republic in place of monarchy. Whatever 
may be the value of this conjecture upon a change which would certainly not 
have been very beneficial to the future prospects of that nation, it is perfectly 
certain that no other system than that of aristocracy would have been found 
practicable in France ; for circumstances at that period would admit of nothing 
else ; and the aristocrats who were at the head of religious innovation, would 
admit of no other organization. Had Protestantism triumphed in France, it is 
probable that the poor of that country, in imitation of their brethren in 
Germany, would have claimed a share in the rich booty ; but they certainly 
would not have found Calvin's proverbial harshness more advantageous to 
them than the furious rashness of Luther was to the Germans. It is probable 
that these wretched villagers, who, according to contemporary writers, had 
nothing to eat but rye-bread, with no animal food, and slept upon a bundle of 
straw, with a board for their pillow, would not have felt themselves more com- 
fortable than their brethren in Germany, had they thought proper to partici- 
pate in the effects of the new doctrines. In this case, they would not have 
been punished, but exterminated, like their brethren beyond the Rhine. In 
England, the sudden disappearance of the monasteries produced pauperism. 
Their property having fallen into the hands of laymen, the religious being 
driven from their abodes, the poor who subsisted upon the alms of these holy 
establishments were left without the means of subsistence. And observe, that 
the evil was not temporary ; it has continued to our own days, and is now one 
of the greatest evils afflicting Great Britain. I am aware that almsgiving is 



356 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



said to encourage indolence ; but it is very certain that England, with her 
poor-laws and her legal charity, contains a far greater number of destitute 
poor than Catholic countries. It will be difficult to convince me, that to let 
people die of hunger is a good means of developing the popular element. 
Protestantism must have contained something very repulsive to the democrats 
of that period, since we find it rejected in Spain and Italy, the two countries 
in which the people enjoyed the greatest share of prosperity and rights. And 
this becomes still more worthy of attention, when we remark that religious inno- 
vation took root wherever the feudal aristocracy predominated. Look, it will 
be said, at the United Provinces ; but this example only proves that Protest- 
antism, determined to find supporters, willingly took part with the mal-con- 
tents. If Philip II. had been a zealous Protestant, the United Provinces 
would probably have alleged that they were unwilling to remain any longer 
subject to an heretical prince. These provinces were for a long time under 
the exclusive influence of Catholicity, and yet they were prosperous; the 
popular element was developed in their bosom, without meeting any obstacle 
on the part of religion. Exactly at the beginning of the sixteenth century 
they made the discovery, that they could no longer prosper without abjuring 
the faith of their ancestors. Observe the geographical position of the United 
Provinces ; see them surrounded by reformists offering to assist them ; and 
you will find in political considerations the reason which you may seek in vain 
in imaginary affinity between the Protestant system and the interests of the 
people. (35) 



CHAPTER LXI. 

ON THE VALUE OF THE DIFFERENT POLITICAL FORMS — CHARACTER OF 
MONARCHY IN EUROPE. 

The enthusiasm enkindled in Europe in latter times, has cooled down by 
degrees ) experience has shown that a political organization not in accordance 
with the social organization is of no advantage to a nation, but rather over- 
whelms it with evil. Men also understand, and not without difficulty, simple 
as the matter is, that political systems should be regarded solely as a means of 
ameliorating the condition of the people, and that political liberty, to be at all 
rational, must be made a medium for the acquisition of civil liberty. Amongst 
enlightened men, these are ordinary ideas ; fanaticism for such or such political 
forms, considered abstractly from their civil results, is now abandoned as a 
thing denoting ignorance, or as a discreditable means hypocritically made use 
of by the ambitious, devoid of real merit, whose only way to fortune is disturb- 
ance and revolution. It cannot, however, be denied that, considered as simple 
instruments, certain political forms, such as mixed, moderate, constitutional, 
or representative governments, or whatever they be designated, have acquired 
in some countries consideration and solidity ; and that, in many countries, any 
principle which might be considered opposed to representative forms, and only 
favorable to absolute ones, would be repudiated beforehand. Civil liberty has 
become necessary to the people of Europe \ and in some nations the idea of this 
liberty is so identified with that of political liberty, that it is difficult to explain 
how civil liberty can exist under an absolute monarchy. We must therefore 
examine what are the tendencies of the Catholic and those of the Protestant 
religions. I will proceed so as to discover these tendencies by an impartial 
analysis of historical facts. Never, perhaps, as M. G-uizot felicitously observes, 
were the natural course of things, and the hidden ways of Providence, less 
understood. Wheresoever we meet not with assemblies, elections, urns, and 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



357 



votes, we imagine power must be absolute, and liberty unprotected. I have 
an express design in making use of the word tendencies, because it is clear that 
Catholicity has no dogma on this point — -it does not pronounce upon the 
advantages of any particular form of government. The Roman Pontiff 
acknowledges equally as his son the Catholic seated upon the bench of an 
American Assembly, and the most humble subject of the most powerful 
monarch. The Catholic religion is too prudent to descend upon any such 
ground. Emanating from heaven itself, she diffuses herself, like the light of 
the sun, over all things, enlightens and strengthens all, and is never obscured 
or tarnished. Her object is to conduct man to heaven, by furnishing him on 
his passage with great assistance and consolation upon earth ; she ceases not 
to point out to him eternal truths ; she gives him in all his affairs, salutary 
counsels ; but the moment we come to mere details, she has no obligation to 
impose, no duty to enjoin. She impresses upon his mind her sacred maxims 
of morality, admonishing him never to depart from them ; like a tender mother 
speaking to her son, she says to him, " Provided you depart not from my 
instructions, do what you consider most expedient/' 

But is it true that there is in Catholicity at least a tendency to obstruct 
liberty ? What has been the result of Protestantism in Europe with regard 
to political forms ? In what has it corrected or ameliorated the work of Catho- 
licity ? In the centuries preceding the sixteenth, the organization of-European 
society was so complicated, the development of all the intellectual faculties had 
arrived at such a point, the contention of interests was so lively, in fine, every 
nation was so enlarged by the successive agglomeration of provinces, that a 
central, forcible, energetic power, predominating over all individual preten- 
sions and those of classes, was indispensable to the peace and prosperity of the 
people. Europe had no other hope for peace ; for wherever there exists a 
great number of various, opposite, and all powerful elements, a regulating 
action is necessary to prevent violent shocks, to calm excessive ardor, to moder- 
ate the rapidity of motion, to prevent a continual war, which would necessa- 
rily lead to destruction and chaos. This immediately gave to the monarchical 
principle a fresh and irresistible impulse ; and as this impulse was felt in every 
European country, even in those possessing republican institutions, it evidently 
resulted from causes that lay deep in the social condition of the times. At the 
present day there is not a publicist of any note who would question these truths. 
During the last half century, in fact, events have occurred well calculated to 
demonstrate that in Europe monarchy is something more than usurpation and 
tyranny. In the very countries in which democratical ideas have taken root, 
it has been found necessary to modify them, and in some degree to depart from 
them, in order to preserve the throne, which is regarded as the best safeguard 
of the great interests of society. 

It is the infirmity of all things human, however good and salutary they may 
be, always to bring with them an accompaniment of inconveniences and evils. 
Monarchy could not evidently be exempt from this general rule ; in other words, 
the great extension of force and power was sure to produce abuse and excess. 
The European nations are not of a sufficiently patient character, nor of a suffi- 
ciently moderate temperament, to endure with resignation all sorts of disorders. 
The European entertains so profound an idea of his dignity, that he cannot 
comprehend the quietism of the Oriental nations, living in the midst of degra- 
dation, bowing their slavish heads before the despot who despises and oppresses 
them. Hence, whilst we in Europe acknowledge and feel the necessity of a 
very strong power, we have always endeavored to take measures for restraining 
and preventing the abuse of this power. Nothing exalts so much the grandeur 
and dignity of the European nations as the comparison of them with those of 
Asia. The latter have no better means of delivering themselves from oppres- 



358 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



sion than the assassination of their sovereigns. Whilst the blood of one 
monarch is still warm, another ascends his throne, trampling with a disdainful 
foot on the heads of nations as cruel as they are degraded. Not so in Europe; 
we have always recourse to intellectual means ; we have established institu- 
tions which lastingly protect the people from oppression and excesses. We 
cannot deny that our efforts have cost torrents of blood, or affirm that we have 
always adopted the most expedient means ; but on this point Europe, guided 
by the same spirit as in all other matters, has become anxious to substitute 
right in the place of mere might. This is no recent problem ; it existed when 
European society was in its infancy, and in these latter times has been over- 
looked. Great efforts were made many centuries ago to resolve it. Observe 
how Count de Maistre states his opinions on this difficult problem : 

" Although the greatest and most general interest of sovereignty consists in 
its being just, and although the cases in which it transgresses this condition 
are incomparably fewer than the others, unfortunately it does, however, fre- 
quently transgress it j and tKe particular character of certain sovereigns may so 
far augment these inconveniences, that in order to render them supportable, 
it is necessary to compare them with those which would exist if there were no 
sovereign. It was therefore impossible that men should not, from time to 
time, make efforts to secure themselves against the excess of this enormous 
prerogative ; but on this point the world has adopted two widely different 
systems. The daring tribe of Japheth has at all times been gravitating (if we 
may use the expression) towards what is termed liberty ; that is, towards that 
social condition in which the influence of the governing powers is least sensibly 
felt. Ever jealous of his rights and liberties, the European has sought to pre- 
serve them, sometimes by expelling his rulers, and at other times by opposing 
to them the barrier of law. He has tried every thing, every imaginable form of 
government, to set himself free from his rulers, or to restrain their power. 

"The immense posterity of Shem and Cham have pursued another course. 
From the earliest ages down to our own time they have always said to their fellow- 
men, Do whatever you please, and when we are tired we will put you to death,. 
Besides, they have never been able or willing to comprehend the nature of a 
republic ; the balance of power, all those privileges, all those fundamental laws 
of which we are so proud, are totally unknown to them. Among them, the 
richest and most independent man, the possessor of immense movable wealth, 
absolutely at liberty to transport it whither he pleases, sure, moreover, of 
entire protection upon European ground, and threatened at home with the 
rope or the dagger, prefers them, nevertheless, to the misery of dying of ennui 
among us. But no one will ever think of recommending to Europe the public 
law of Asia and Africa, so short and clear ; but as power in Europe is always 
so much feared, discussed, attacked, or transferred, since nothing so much 
wounds our pride as despotic government, the most general European problem 
is to know how sovereign power may be restrained icithout being destroyed" {Du 
JPape, liv. ii. chap. 2.) 

This spirit of political liberty, this desire of limiting power by means of in- 
stitutions, did not originate with the French philosophers ; before their time, 
and long before the appearance of Protestantism, it was circulating in the veins 
of the European people. History has left us irrefragable testimonies of this 
truth. What institutions were deemed suitable for the accomplishment of this 
object ? Certain assemblies, in which the voice of the nation's interests and 
opinions might be heard — assemblies formed in various ways, and meeting from 
time to time around the throne to make their complaints and assert their 
claims. As it was impossible for these assemblies to constitute the government 
without destroying the monarchy, it was necessary, in one way or another, to 
secure their influence in state affairs ; and I do not see that anything better 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 359 

has hitherto been devised for attaining this object than the right of interven- 
tion in the enactment of laws, a right guaranteed to them by another, that 
may be justly termed the right arm of national representation, — the right of 
voting the supplies. Much has been written respecting constitutions and 
representative governments, but this is the essential point. Many and various 
modifications may be introduced, but in reality all consists in the establishment 
of the throne as the centre of power and of action, surrounded by assemblies 
that shall deliberate upon the laws and the taxes. 

Does political liberty in this point of view originate in Protestant ideas ? Is 
it under any obligation to them ? Has it, in fine, any reproach against 
Catholicity ? I open the works of Catholic writers anterior to Protestantism, 
in order to ascertain their sentiments on this subject, and I find that they take 
a clear view of the problem to be solved. I examine rigidly whether they 
teach anything opposed to the progress of the world, to the dignity or the 
rights of man ; I examine, again, whether they bear any affinity to despotism 
or to tyranny, and I find them full of sympathy for the progress of enlight- 
enment and of mankind, inflamed with noble and generous sentiments, and 
zealous for the happiness of the multitude. I remark, indeed, that their hearts 
swell with indignation at the mere names of tyranny and despotism. I open 
the records of history ; I study the opinions and customs of the nations, and 
the predominating institutions; I behold on all sides nothing but fueros, 
privileges, liberty, cortes, states-general, municipalities, and juries. All this 
appears in the greatest confusion, but I see it ; and I am not astonished to 
discover an absence of order, for it is a new world just arisen from chaos. I 
ask myself if the monarch possesses in himself the faculty of making laws ; and 
upon this question I very naturally find variety, uncertainty, and confusion ; 
but I observe that the assemblies representing the different classes of the nation 
take part in the enactment of the laws. I ask whether they have any inter- 
ference in the great affairs of the state ; and I find it stated in the codes that 
they are to be consulted on all grave and important affairs : I see monarchs 
frequently observing this precept. I ask whether these assemblies possess any 
guarantees for their existence and their influence ; and the codes inform me by 
the most decisive texts, and a thousand facts are at hand to convince me, that 
these institutions were deeply rooted in the customs and manners of the people. 

Now what was then the predominating religion ? Catholicity. Were the 
people much attached to religion ? So much so that the spirit of religion 
predominated over all. Did the clergy possess great influence ? Very great. 
What was the power of the Popes ? It was immense. Where do you find the 
clergy attempting to extend the power of kings to the prejudice of the people ? 
Where are the pontifical decrees against such or such forms? Where are 
the measures and plans of the Popes for the restriction of one single legitimate 
right ? No reply. Then I say indignantly, Europe, under the influence of 
Catholicity, arose from chaos to order, civilization advanced at a firm and 
steady pace, the grand problem of political forms engaged the attention of men 
of wisdom, questions of morality and laws were receiving a solution favorable 
to liberty, and yet the influence of the clergy was never greater even in tem- 
poral matters, and the power of the Popes was in every sense quite colossal. 

What ! one word from the Sovereign Pontiff would have smitten unto death 
every form of popular government ; and yet such forms were receiving a rapid 
development. Where, then, is the tendency of the Catholic religion to enslave 
the people ? Where the infamous alliance between kings and Popes to oppress 
and harass the people, to establish on the throne a ferocious despotism, and to 
rejoice under its gloomy shades over the misfortune and tears of mankind ? 
When the Popes had a quarrel with any kingdom, was it usually with the 
king or the people ? When it was necessary to oppose a firm front against 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



tyranny and oppression, who stood forward more promptly or more firmly than 
the Sovereign Pontiff? Does not Voltaire himself admit that the Popes 
restrained princes, protected the people, put an end to the quarrels of the time 
by a wise intervention, reminded both kings and people of their duties, and 
hurled anathemas against those enormities which they could not prevent? 
(Quoted by M. de Maistre, Du Pape.) 

It is very remarkable that the Bull In Coena Domini, which created so much 
alarm, contains in its fifth article an excommunication against " those who should 
levy new taxes upon their estates, or should increase those already existing beyond 
the bounds marked out by right" The spirit of deliberation, so common even 
at this period, and which formed so singular a contrast with the tendency to 
violent measures, arose in a great measure from the example given by the 
Catholic Church during so many centuries. In fact, it is impossible to point 
out a society in which more assemblies have been held, combining in them 
every thing distinguished by science and virtue. General, national, provincial 
Councils and diocesan synods are to be met with in every page of the Church's 
history. Such an example, exposed during centuries to the view of the people, 
could not fail to influence and affect customs and laws. In Spain the greatest 
part of the Councils of Toledo were also national congresses ; whilst the epis- 
copal authority performed its functions in them, watching over the purity of 
dogmas, and providing for the wants of discipline, the great affairs of the state 
were also discussed in them in harmony with the secular power. In them were 
enacted those laws which are still an object of admiration to modern observers. 
The Utopias of Rousseau are now fallen into complete disrepute among the best 
publicists. Representative governments are no longer to be defended as a 
means of bringing the general will into action, but as an instrument, through 
the medium of which reason and good sense may be consulted, which would 
otherwise remain dispersed throughout the nation. Legislative assemblies are 
now represented to us, in works upon constitutional law, as the foci in which 
all knowledge serving to throw light on the difficulties of public affairs may be 
concentrated ; they are held up to us as the representatives of all legitimate 
interests, as the organ of all reasonable opinions, the voice of all just com- 
plaints, a channel of perpetual communication between governors and their 
subjects, a measure of justice in the laws, a means of rendering the laws 
respectable and venerable in the eyes of the people ; in short, as a permanent 
guarantee that a government, never consulting its own interests, should study 
only public utility and expediency. At a time when we are informed in such 
fine terms what these assemblies ought to be, not what they are, it will not be 
uninteresting to refer to the Councils ; for we see at a glance that the Councils 
must in a certain manner explain the nature and spirit, and point out the 
motives and aim, of political assemblies. 

I am aware of the fundamental differences existing between these two assem- 
blies ; men who receive their powers from popular election cannot, in fact, be 
placed in the same rank as those who have been appointed by the Holy Ghost 
to govern the Church of God ; neither can the monarch, who derives his right 
to the throne from the fundamental laws of the nation, be confounded with that 
rock upon which the Church of Christ is built. I grant also that, whether 
with regard to the subjects discussed in the Councils, or with regard to the 
persons engaged in these discussions, and to the extension of the Church over 
the whole earth, there must necessarily be a great dissimilarity between the 
Councils and political assemblies, with respect to the epoch of their being 
assembled, and the mode of their organization and of their proceedings. But 
we are not here about to imagine an ingenious parallel, and to seek with sub- 
tilty resemblances which do not exist; my only aim is to show the influence 
which the lessons of prudence and maturity given for so long a time by the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



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Church must have exercised upon political laws and customs. If we consult 
the annals of the nations of antiquity, or those of modern times, we shall dis- 
cover that all deliberative assemblies are composed of persons who have a right 
to sit in them by a regulation stated in the laws. But to admit into them a 
man of knowledge, simply because he is so, is to pay a noble tribute to merit — 
to proclaim in the most solemn manner, that the care of ruling the world 
belongs properly to intelligence. This the Church alone has done. 

I make this observation to prove that society is indebted mainly to the 
Church for the progress it has made in this respect. I will adduce on this 
point a fact that has not perhaps been sufficiently attended to, but which clearly 
shows that the Catholic Church was the first to seek out men of talent wherever 
they were to be found, and unhesitatingly to allow them influence in public 
affairs. I will not speak of that spirit which forms one of her distinctive char- 
acteristics among all other societies, which has ever led her to seek merit, and 
nothing but merit, and to raise it to the highest functions — a spirit which no 
one can deny her, and which has eminently contributed to her splendor and 
preponderance. But it is very remarkable that the influence of this spirit has 
been felt where, at first sight, it might have been least expected. In fact, it 
is well known that, according to the doctrines of the Church, no private indi- 
vidual has any right to interfere in the decisions and deliberations of the Coun- 
cils ) hence, however learned a theologian or jurist may be, his knowledge gives 
him no right whatever to take part in those august assemblies. Nevertheless, 
it is well known that the Church has ever taken care to call to them men who, 
whatever might be their titles, excelled most by their talents or their learning. 
Who does not read with pleasure the list of learned men who, although not 
Bishops, were present at the Council of Trent ? 

In modern society, do not talent, wisdom, and genius carry the highest head, 
command the greatest consideration and respect, and present the best claims 
to the direction of public affairs, and to the exercise of a preponderating 
influence ? These should know that nowhere have their claims been respected 
or their dignity acknowledged so well as in the Church. What society, in 
fact, has ever sought, as the Church has, to elevate them, to consult them in 
the most important affairs, and to afford them an opportunity of shining in 
grand assemblies ? In the Church, birth and riches are of no importance. If 
you are a man of high merit, untarnished by misconduct, and at the same time 
conspicuous by your abilities and your knowledge, that is enough — she will look 
upon you as a great man, will always show you extreme consideration, treat 
you with respect, and listen to you with deference. And since your brow, 
though sprung from obscurity, is radiant with fame, it will be held worthy to 
bear the mitre, the Cardinal's hat, or the tiara. To speak in the language of 
the day, I may remark, that the aristocracy of knowledge owes much of its 
importance to the ideas and discipline of the Church. (36) 



CHAPTER LXII. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MONARCHY IN EUROPE. 

A single glance at the state of Europe in the fifteenth century enables us 
to discover that such a state of things could not long exist, and that of the three 
elements claiming preference, the monarchical must necessarily prevail. And 
it could not be otherwise ; for we have always seen that societies, after a long 
period of trouble and agitation, place themselves at last under the protection 
of that power which offers them the greatest security and well-being. Behold- 
ing, on the one hand, those great feudatories, so proud, so exacting, so turbulent, 
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362 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



enemies to each other, and rivals of the king as well as of the people ; on the 
other hand, the commons, whose existence appears under so many different 
forms — whose rights, privileges, fueros and liberties present so various and 
complex an aspect — whose ideas have no constant and well defined direction ; — 
we conclude at once, that neither were possessed of sufficient force to struggle 
against the royal power, already acting by a fixed plan and a determinate sys- 
tem, seizing every opportunity which might serve to forward its views. Who 
is not aware of the sagacity displayed by Ferdinand the Catholic in developing 
and implanting his prominent idea — that of centralizing power, giving it vigor, 
and rendering its action forcible and universal ; that is, the idea of founding a 
true monarchy ? And why not acknowledge in the immortal Ximenes a worthy 
and more eminent continuator of this policy ? It would be erroneous to con- 
sider this as an evil to nations. All publicists agree that it was necessary to 
give strength and stability to power, and prevent its action from becoming weak 
or intermittent ; but the only representative of real power at that time was the 
throne. Hence, to fortify and aggrandize royal power was of real necessity ; 
all plans and efforts of man would have failed to place an obstacle in its way. 
But it remains, nevertheless, to be seen, whether this aggrandizement of royal 
power outstepped its due bounds; and this is the place for contrasting Pro- 
testantism with Catholicity, that we may ascertain which of them was culpable, 
if either, and to what extent. This is a very important and curious subject, 
but at the same time one of difficulty and delicacy. In fact, such a change 
has taken place of late in the meaning of words, the aversion which parties 
profess for each other is so profound, each one repels with such impetuosity 
every thing which bears the most remote resemblance to what is esteemed by 
his adversaries, that it is an arduous undertaking to render the state of the 
question and the meaning of words comprehensible. I ask one thing of my 
readers of all opinions; that is, that they will suspend their judgment until 
they have read the whole of what I have to adduce on this point. If they con- 
sent to this, and do not quarrel with the first word that shocks them — in a 
word, if they have sufficient patience to hear before they judge, I am confident 
that, if we do not altogether agree, which is impossible amid such a variety of 
opinions, they will at least grant that I have taken an apparently reasonable 
view of the subject, and that my conjectures are not altogether unfounded. 

I shall commence, in the first place, by completely laying aside the question 
whether it was advantageous or not to society that, in the greatest part of Eu- 
ropean monarchies, royal power should have any other limits than those natu- 
rally imposed upon it by the state of ideas and customs. This question some 
will answer in the affirmative, others in the negative ; and I need not observe 
to what party they respectively belong. To many people the word liberty is a 
scandal, just as the term absolute power is with others synonymous with des- 
potism. But what is that liberty which the former repel with so much force ? 
what meaning is attached to this word in their dictionaries ? The} T have wit- 
nessed the French Revolution, with its iniquities and frightful crimes, and 
they have heard it continually crying out for liberty : they have witnessed 
the Spanish Revolution, with its vociferations of death, and its sanguinary 
excesses — its injustice, its disdain for every thing that Spaniards had been 
accustomed to esteem the most valuable and sacred ; and yet they have hoard 
the cries of this Revolution also for liberty. What was to be expected ? Why, 
what we now witness. They confounded the name of liberty with all sorts of 
impieties and crimes ; and, in consequence, they hated it, they repelled it, they 
fought against it sword in hand. In vain were they informed that the cortes 
was an ancient institution ; they replied, that the ancient cortes was not like 
that of their times. In vain were they reminded that our laws ordained the 
nation's right of interference by its vote on the levying of taxes. They 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



363 



replied : " We are well aware of it ; but the nation is not now represented 
by those who interfere in its affairs ; they only avail themselves of this pre- 
tended title to enslave both the king and the people." They were told that 
the representatives of the different classes had formerly the right of interven- 
tion in the important affairs of the state. " What class do you represent/' 
they replied ; " you who degrade the monarch, insult and persecute the nobility, 
abuse and plunder the clergy, despising the people, and making their customs 
and their religious belief a subject for your sneers? What, then, do you 
represent ? Is it the Spanish nation, when you trample on her religion and 
laws, when you excite social dissolution on all sides, and make blood flow in 
torrents ? How can you call yourselves the restorers of our fundamental laws, 
when we find nothing either in you or in your acts which marks the true 
Spaniard; when all your theories, plans, and projects are only miserable 
copies of foreign books but too well known, while you have forgotten your own 
language ?" 

I pray the reader will cast his eyes over the files of the journals, the bul- 
letins of the cortes, and other documents that remain of the two epochs of 1812 
and 1820; let him also call to mind the events we have recently witnessed; 
let him afterwards peruse the records and memorials of anterior epochs, — our 
codes, our books, every thing, in fine, capable of throwing light upon the cha- 
racter, the ideas, and the customs of the Spanish people; then let him lay his 
hand upon his heart, and, whatever be his political opinions, let him tell us, 
upon his honor, if he finds the least resemblance between the past and the 
present ; if he does not, at the very first glance, perceive a striking and violent 
contrast between the two epochs — a chasm, in fact, to fill up which, I say it 
with grief, would require heaps of fresh ruins, ashes, dead bodies, and torrents 
of blood. Were we to place the question beyond the influence of the empoi- 
soned atmosphere of human passions and of bitter recollections, we might, it is 
true, very well examine the expediency of allowing the royal authority to attain 
to a growth that set it free from every kind of check or restraint, even in 
affairs of the most essential importance and in the voting of the government 
supplies. The question would then have merely a historico-political aspect, 
could not be confounded with actual practice, and, consequently, would not 
affect either the interests or the opinions of our time. However that might 
be, I will not stop to consider or to notice what has been thought and said upon 
the subject, but will take up the hypothesis, that the disappearance from the 
body politic, at that time, of every element save the monarchical, was a mis- 
fortune to the people, and an obstacle to the progress of true civilization. And 
whose was the fault ? let me ask. 

It is remarkable that the greatest increase of royal power in Europe dates 
precisely from the commencement of Protestantism. In England, from the 
time of Henry VIII., not only did monarchy prevail, but a despotism so cruel 
that no vain appearances of impotent forms have availed to disguise its excesses. 
In France, after the Huguenot war, royal power became more absolute than 
ever; in Sweden, Grustavus ascended the throne, and from that time kings 
began to exercise an almost unlimited power; in Denmark, monarchy con- 
tinued, and became stronger ; in Germany, the kingdom of Prussia was formed, 
and absolute forms generally prevailed ; in Austria, the empire of Charles V. 
arose in all its power and splendor; in Italy, the small republics were fast 
disappearing, and the people, under some title or another, became subject to 
princes ; in Spain, in fine, the ancient cortes of Castile, Aragon, Valencia, and 
Catalonia fell into disuse : that is to say, instead of seeing, by the accession 
of Protestantism, the people take one step towards representative forms, we 
find, on the contrary, that they rapidly advanced towards absolute government. 
This is a certain, incontestable fact. Sufficient attention has not perhaps been 



364 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



paid to so singular a coincidence ; but it is not the less real, and is certainly 
of a nature to suggest numerous and interesting reflections. Was this coin- 
cidence purely accidental ? Was there any hidden connection between Pro- 
testantism and the development and definitive establishment of absolutism ? I 
think there was; and I will even add, that, had Catholicism retained an 
exclusive sway in Europe, the power of the throne would have been gradually 
diminished — that representative forms would probably not have disappeared 
altogether — that the people would have continued to take part in national 
affairs — that we should have been much farther advanced in civilization, much 
better fitted for the enjoyment of true liberty — and that this liberty would not 
be associated in our minds with scenes of horror. Yes, the fatal Reformation 
has given a wrong direction to European society, injured civilization, created 
necessities that previously had no existence, and opened chasms which it can- 
not close. It destroyed many elements of good, and consequently produced a 
radical change in the conditions of the political problem. This I think I can 
demonstrate. 



CHAPTER LXIII. 

TWO KINDS OF DEMOCRACY. 

There is in the history of Europe one leading fact contained in all its pages, 
and still visible in our days, viz. the parallel march of two democracies, which, 
although sometimes apparently alike, are, in reality, very different in their 
nature, origin, and aim. The one is based upon the knowledge and dignity 
of man, and on the right which he possesses of enjoying a certain amouDt of 
liberty conformable to reason and justice. With ideas more or less clear, more 
or less uniform, upon the real origin of society and of power, it entertains at 
least very clear, precise, and fixed ones upon the real object and aim of both. 
Whether the right of commanding proceeds directly and immediately from 
God, or whether we suppose it communicated previously to society, and trans- 
mitted afterwards to those who govern, it always grants that power is for the 
common weal, and that, if it does not direct its actions to this end, it falls into 
tyranny. To privileges, honors, and distinctions of every kind, it applies its 
favorite touchstone — the public good; whatever is opposed to this, is rejected 
as noxious ; whatever does not tend to promote it, is repudiated as superfluous. 
Convinced that knowledge and virtue are the only things of real worth, and 
deserving of consideration in the distribution of the social functions, this demo- 
cracy requires them to be sought without ceasing, that they may be elevated to 
the summit of power and of glory; it goes to seek them in the midst of the 
deepest obscurity. A nobleman, proud of his titles and his heraldry, and 
boasting of the glorious deeds of his ancestors, without being able to imitate 
them, is, in its estimation, an object of ridicule; it will allow such a man to 
enjoy his riches, that the sacred right of property may not be violated; but it 
will remove from his grasp, by all lawful means, the influence he might derive 
from the nobility of his blood. In fine, if it takes nobility, birth or riches into 
consideration, it is not for any intrinsic worth of these advantages, but because 
they are signs which lead us to expect a more accomplished education, more 
knowledge and probity. 

Full of generous ideas, this democracy, placing the dignity of man in the 
highest degree, reminding man of his rights, and also of his duties, is indignant 
at the very name of tyranny. It hates tyranny, condemns it, repels it, and is 
perpetually employed in discovering the best means for preventing it. Wise 
and calm, as the inseparable companion of reason and good sense must ever be, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



365 



it agrees very well with monarchy ; but we may rest assured that its desires 
have generally been, that the laws of the country should, in one way or another, 
place a restraint upon the excesses of kings. Aware that the rock against 
which they ran the risk of being wrecked, was the excess of contributions 
levied upon the people, its favorite idea, which it has never abandoned, even 
when it was impracticable, has been to restrain the unlimited faculties of power 
with respect to contributions. Another of its predominating ideas has been to 
prevent the will of man from prevailing in the formation or application of the 
laws. It has ever sought to guarantee and secure in some way, that the will 
should not usurp the place of reason. Such has been the force of this uni- 
versal desire, that it has been indelibly stamped upon European manners, and 
the most absolute monarchs have been compelled to gratify it. Hence one 
thing very worthy of remark is, that the throne has ever been surrounded by 
respectable counsellors, whose existence was insured either by the laws or by 
the national customs. These counsellors certainly could not preserve, in all 
circumstances, the independence necessary for the accomplishment of their 
object, but they did not fail to be of great service ; for their mere existence 
was an eloquent protest against unjust and arbitrary regulations ; it was a noble 
personification of reason and justice, pointing out the sacred limits ever to be 
regarded as inviolable by the most powerful monarch. This is also the reason 
why sovereigns in Europe never exercise themselves the faculty of pronouncing 
judgment, differing in this respect from the sultans. The laws and customs of 
Europe energetically repulse this faculty, as fatal to the people as it is to the 
monarch ; and the mere recital of such an attempt would excite public indigna- 
tion against its author. 

The meaning of all this is, that this principle, so much extolled, that it is 
not the monarch but the law that commands, has been received in Europe for 
many centuries ; it was in full force in all the European nations long before 
modern publicists emphatically enunciated it. It will be said, perhaps, that if 
this was the case in theory, it was not so in practice. I do not deny that there 
were reprehensible exceptions, but the principle was generally respected. As 
a case in point, let us take the most absolute reign of modern times, with the 
most unlimited royal power in all its splendor, in its apogee, — the reign in 
which the king could exclaim with too much pride, but yet with truth, " I am 
the state" — that of Louis the Fourteenth. It lasted more than half a century, 
with an astonishing variety and complication of events. How many deaths, 
confiscations, and banishments took place in it, executed by the royal command, 
without any judicial ordeal ! Perhaps some arbitrary acts of this time may be 
cited; but let them be compared with what was passing under equivalent 
circumstances amongst the nations out of Europe : let any one recall to mind 
what took place at the time of the Roman empire, and the excesses of absolute 
royalty wherever Christianity did not exist, and he will see that the excesses 
committed in European monarchies are scarcely worthy of being mentioned. 
This is a proof that the distinction made between monarchical governments, 
whether absolute or despotic, is not arbitrary and fictitious. Any one acquainted 
with the legislation and history of Europe must be well aware that this dis- 
tinction is correct, and he will be forced to smile at those boisterous declamations 
in which malice or ignorance endeavors to confound the two systems of go- 
vernment. 

This limit imposed upon power, this circle of reason and justice which we 
always find traced around it, derives its origin principally from the ideas dis- 
seminated by Christianity, whether it have its guarantee in ideas and manners 
or in political forms. It is Christianity that has proclaimed, " Reason and 
justice, knowledge and virtue, are every thing ; the mere will of man, his 
birth, his titles, are of no intrinsic value." These words have penetrated 

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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



every where, from the palace of kings to the poor man's cottage ; and, from 
the moment that the mind of an entire people became imbued with such ideas, 
Asiatic despotism became impracticable. In fact, in the absence of every 
political form limiting the power of the monarch, a voice resounds in his ears 
on all sides, exclaiming, " We are not thy slaves, we are thy subjects; thou 
art a king, but thou art a man, and a man who, like ourselves, must appear 
one day before the Supreme Judge ; thou hast the power of making laws, but 
merely for our interests ; thou canst exact tributes from us, but only such as 
are necessary for the common weal ; thou canst not judge us according to thy 
caprice, but only conformably to the laws ; thou canst not seize our property 
without rendering thyself more culpable than the common robber, nor make 
an attempt on our lives, of thy own will, without becoming an assassin ; the 
power thou hast received is not for thy comfort or pleasure, nor for the gratifi- 
cation of thy passions, but solely for our happiness ; thou art a person ex- 
clusively devoted to the public weal; if thou forgettest this, thou art a 
tyrant." 

Unfortunately, however, together with this spirit of lawful independence, of 
rational liberty, — together with this just, noble, and generous democracy, there 
has ever been another accompanying it, and forming with it the most lively 
contrast. The latter has been extremely injurious to the former, by prevent- 
ing it from attaining the object of its just pretensions ; erroneous in its princi- 
ples and perverse in its intentions, violent and unjust in its mode of acting, its 
traces have been everywhere marked by a stream of blood. Instead of obtain- 
ing true liberty for the people, it has merely served to deprive them of that 
which they already possessed ; or if it actually found them groaning under the 
yoke of slavery, it has only served to rivet their chains. Allying itself on all 
occasions with the basest passions, it has attracted to its standard all that was 
most vile and abject in society, and gathered together the most turbulent and 
ill-disposed men. By cheating its miserable followers with delusive promises, 
and exciting them with the prospect of plunder and pillage, it has been a per- 
petual source of commotions, scandals, and bitter animosities, that have at 
length produced their natural results — persecutions, proscriptions, and execu- 
tions. Its fundamental dogma was the rejection of all authority of every 
description, to overturn which was its constant aim ; the reward it expected for 
its labors was to seat itself upon a throne established amidst universal ruin, to 
glut itself with the blood of thousands of victims, and to revel in the grossest 
orgies during the distribution of its blood-stained spoil. In all times, in all 
countries, riots, popular insurrections, and revolutions have taken place ; but, 
for the last seven centuries, Europe presents these scenes in so singular a 
character, that it forms a most fitting subject for the reflection of philosophers. 
In fact, these tendencies towards social dissolution — tendencies, the origin of 
which it is not difficult to discover in the very heart of man — have not only 
existed in the bosom of Europe, but have been formed into a theory ; as ideas, 
they have been defended with all the obstinacy and infatuation of a sectarian 
spirit ; and, wherever an opportunity occurred, reduced to practice with un- 
yielding pertinacity and unbridled fury. The system was made up of folly and 
fanaticism, and carried out with obstinacy, a spirit of proselytism, and monstrous 
crimes. In every page of its history this truth is attested in characters of 
blood. Happy our nation, had she not tried the experiment ! 

Europe may be compared to those men of great capacity and of active and 
intrepid characters, who are either the very best or the very worst of men. 
Scarcely can a single fact of any weight remain isolated in Europe : there is 
not a truth that is not useful, nor an error that is not fatal. Ideas have a 
tendency to become realized, and facts, in their turn, incessantly call in the aid 
of ideas. If virtues exist, they are explained, and their foundation is sought 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



367 



for in elevated theories. If crimes are met with, their vindication is attempted 
on the authority of perverse theories. Nations do not rest satisfied with the 
practice either of good or evil — they strive to propagate it, and are restless till 
they have induced their neighbors to imitate them. Nay, there is something 
beyond a mere spirit of proselytism limited to a few countries — ideas, in our 
times, aim at nothing short of universal empire. The spirit of propa- 
gandised does not date from the French Revolution, nor even from the sixteenth 
century ; from the very dawn of civilization, from the times when the minds of 
men began to evince symptoms of activity, this phenomenon is apparent, and 
in a very striking manner. In the agitated Europe of the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries, we behold the Europe of the nineteenth century, just as the 
imperfectly defined lineaments of the germ contain forms of the future being. 

A great part of the sects which assailed the Church, dating from the tenth 
century, were decidedly revolutionary; they either proceeded from the fatal 
democracy which I have just mentioned, or derived their support from it. 
Unfortunately this democracy, restless, unjust ^and turbulent, having compro- 
mised the tranquillity of Europe in the centuries anterior to the sixteenth, found 
in Protestantism its most fervent propagators. Among the numerous sects 
into which the pretended reform was immediately divided, some opened the 
way for it, and others adopted it as their standard. And what must have been 
the result in the political organization of Europe ? I will say it candidly : the 
disappearance of those political institutions which enabled the different classes 
of the state to take part in its affairs, was inevitable. Now, as it was very 
diflicult for the European people, considering their character, ideas and customs, 
to submit for ever to their new condition, as their predominant inclination 
must have urged them to place bounds upon the extension of power, it was 
natural that revolutions should ensue ; it was natural that future generations 
should have to witness great catastrophes, such as the English Revolution of 
the seventeenth century and the French Revolution of the eighteenth. There 
was a time when it might have been diflicult to comprehend these truths ; that 
time is past. The revolutions in which for some centuries the different nations 
of Europe have been successively involved, have brought within the reach of 
the least intelligent that social law so frequently realized, viz. that anarchy 
leads to despotism, and that despotism begets anarchy. Never, at any time, 
in any nation (history and experience prove the fact), have anti-social ideas 
been inculcated, the minds of the people been imbued with the spirit of insub- 
ordination and rebellion, without almost immediately provoking the application 
of the only remedy at the command of nations in such conflicts, the establish- 
ment of a very strong government, which justly or unjustly, legally or not, 
lifts up its iron arm over every one, and makes all heads bend under its yoke. 
To clamor and tumult succeeds the most profound silence ; the people then 
easily become resigned to their new condition, for reflection and instinct teach 
them that although it is well to possess a certain amount of liberty, the first 
want of society is self-preservation. 

What was the case in Germany, after the introduction of Protestantism by 
a succession of religious revolutions ? Maxims destructive of all society were 
propagated, factions formed, insurrections took place ) upon the field of battle 
and upon the scaffolds blood flowed in torrents ; but no sooner did the instinct 
of social preservation begin to operate, than, instead of popular forms being 
established and taking root, every thing tended towards the opposite extreme. 
And was not this the country in which the people had been flattered by the prospect 
of unrestrained liberty, of a re-partition and even a community of property ; in 
fine, by the promise of the most absolute equality in every thing. Yet, in this 
same country, the most striking inequality prevailed, and the feudal aristocracy 
preserved its full force. In other countries, in which no such hopes of liberty 



368 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



and equality had been held out, we can scarcely discover the limits which 
separated the nobility from the people. In Germany, the nobility still retained 
their wealth and their preponderance, were still surrounded by titles, privileges, 
and distinctions of every description. In that very country, in which there were 
such outcries against the power of kings, in which the name of king was 
declared synonymous with tyrant, the most absolute monarchy was established ; 
and the apostate of the Teutonic order founded that kingdom of Prussia, from 
which representative forms are still excluded.* In Denmark, Protestantism was 
established, and with it absolute power immediately took deep root ; in Sweden 
we find, at the very same time, the power of Gustavus established. 

What was the case in England ? Representative forms were not introduced 
into that country by Protestantism ; they existed centuries before, as well as 
in other nations of Europe. But the monarch who founded the Anglican 
Church was distinguished for his despotism, and the Parliament, which ought 
to have restrained him, was most shamefully degraded. What idea can we 
form of the liberty of a country whose legislators and representatives debased 
themselves so far as to declare, that any one obtaining a knowledge of the 
illicit amours of the Queen is bound, under pain of high treason, to bring an 
accusation against her ? What can we think of the liberty of a country, in 
which the very men who ought to defend that liberty, cringe with so much 
baseness to the unruly passions of the monarch, that they are not ashamed, in 
order to flatter the jealousy of the sovereign, to establish that any young 
female who should marry a king of England, should, under a pain of high 
treason, be compelled before her marriage to reveal any stain there might be 
on her virtue ? Such ignominious enactments are certainly a stronger proof of 
abject servility than the declaration of that same Parliament, establishing that 
the mere will of the monarch should have the force of law. Representative 
forms preserved in that country at a time when they had disappeared from 
almost every other nation of Europe, were not, however, a guarantee against 
tyranny ; for the English cannot assuredly boast of the liberty they enjoyed 
under the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth. Perhaps in no country in 
Europe was less liberty enjoyed, in no country were the people more oppressed 
under popular forms, in no country did despotism prevail to a greater extent. 
If there be anything which can convince us of these truths, in case the facts 
already cited should be found insufficient, it is undoubtedly the efforts made 
by the English to acquire liberty. And if the efforts made to shake off the 
yoke of oppression are to be regarded as a sure sign of its galling effects, we 
are justified in thinking that the oppression under which England was groaning 
must have been very severe, since that country has passed through so long and 
terrible a revolution, in which so many tears and so much blood has been shed. 

When we consider what has taken place in France, we remark that religious 
wars have always given an ascendency to royal power. After such long agita- 
tions, so many troubles and civil wars, we see the reign of Louis XIV., and 
we hear that proud monarch exclaim, " I am the state" We have here the 
most complete personification of the absolute power which always follows 
anarchy. Have the European nations had to complain of the unlimited power 
exercised by monarchs ? have they had to regret that all the representative 
forms which could ensure their liberties perished under the ascendency of the 
throne ? Let them blame Protestantism for it, which spreading the germs of 
anarchy all over Europe, created an imperious, urgent, and inevitable necessity 
for centralizing rule, for. fortifying royal power : it was necessary to stop up 
every source from which dissolvent principles might flow, and to keep within 
narrow bounds all the elements which, by contact and vicinity, were ready to 
ignite and produce a fatal conflagration. 

* When this was written. — Tr. 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



369 



Every reflecting man will agree with me on this point. Considering the 
aggrandizement of absolute power, they will discover in it nothing but the 
realization of a fact already long ago everywhere observed. Assuredly, the 
monarchs of Europe cannot be compared, either by the fact of their origin or 
the character of their measures, to those despots who, under different titles, 
have usurped the command of society at the critical moment when it was near 
its dissolution ; but it may be said with reason, that the unlimited extent of 
their power has been caused by a great social necessity, viz. that of one sole 
and forcible authority, without which the preservation of public order was 
impossible. We cannot without dismay take a view of Europe after the 
appearance of Protestantism. What frightful dissolution ! What erroneous 
ideas ! What relaxation of morals ! What a multitude of sects ! What ani- 
mosity in men's minds ! What rage, what ferocity ! Violent disputes, inter- 
minable debates, accusations, recriminations without end ; troubles, rebellion, 
intestine and foreign wars, sanguinary battles, and atrocious punishments. 
Such is the picture that Europe presents ; such are the effects of this apple of 
discord thrown among men who are brethren. And what was sure to be the 
result of this confusion, of this retrograde movement, by which society seemed 
returning to violent means, to the tyranny of might over right ? The result 
was sure to be what it has in fact been : the instinct of preservation, stronger 
than the passions and the frenzy of man, was sure to prevail ; it suggested to 
Europe the only means of self-preservation; royal power, already in the 
ascendant, and verging towards its highest point, was sure to end by attaining 
it in reality; there to become isolated and completely separated from the people, 
and to impose silence on popular passions. What ought to have been effected 
by a wise direction of ideas, was accomplished by the force of a very powerful 
institution ) the vigor of the sceptre had to neutralize the impulse given to 
society towards its ruin. If we consider attentively, we shall find that such is 
the meaning of the event of 1680 in Sweden, when that country was subjected 
to the fierce will of Charles XI. J such the meaning of the event of 1669 in 
Denmark, when that nation, wearied with anarchy, supplicated King Frederick 
III. to declare the monarchy hereditary and absolute, which he in fact did ; 
such, in fine, is the meaning of what took place in. Holland in 1747, and of 
the creation of an hereditary stadtholder. If we require more convincing 
examples, we have the despotism of Cromwell in England after such terrible 
revolutions, and that of Napoleon in France after the republic. (37) 



CHAPTER LXIV. 

STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE THREE SOCIAL ELEMENTS. 

When once these three elements of government, monarchy, aristocracy, and 
democracy, began each to contend for the ascendency, the most certain means 
of securing the victory to monarchy, to the exclusion of the other two elements, 
was to drive one of these latter into acts of turbulence and outrage ) for it thus 
became absolutely necessary to establish one sole, powerful, unfettered centre 
of action, that would be able to awe the turbulent and to insure public order. 
Now, just at this time, the position of the popular element was full of hope, 
but also beset with dangers ; and hence, to preserve the influence it had already 
acquired, and to increase its ascendency and power, the greatest moderation 
and circumspection were requisite. Monarchy had already acquired great 
power, and, having obtained it in part by espousing the cause of the people 
against the lords, it came to be regarded as the natural protector of popular 
interests. It certainly had some claims to this title, but no less certainly did 
47 



370 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



it find in this circumstance a most favorable opportunity for extending its power 
to an unlimited degree, at the expense of the rights and liberties of the people. 

There existed a germ of division between the aristocracy and the commons, 
which afforded the monarchs an opportunity of curtailing the rights and powers 
of the lords, convinced, moreover, as they were, that any measure tending to 
such an object would be well received by the multitude. But, on the other 
hand, the monarch might rest assured that the lords would hail with delight 
any act tending to humble the people, who already had raised their heads so 
high when the feudal aristocracy was to be resisted ; and, in this case, if the 
people committed any excesses, if they adopted maxims and doctrines subver- 
sive of public order, no one could prevent the monarch from putting a stop to 
their proceedings by all possible means. The lords, who were powerful enough 
to repress such disorders themselves, would very naturally be glad to leave 
such a work to the monarch, fearing lest the people, in their exasperation 
against them, might deprive them of their prerogatives, their honors, their 
property, and even of their lives ; or from the secret satisfaction they would 
naturally feel at seeing that rival power brought down which had recently 
humbled themselves, and whose rivalry had been maintained through so many 
and such ferocious struggles. In such an undertaking, the lords would natu- 
rally bring the whole weight of their influence to the support of the monarch, 
thus taking advantage of the false direction given to the popular movement to 
revenge themselves upon the people, whilst veiling their vengeance under the 
pretext of public utility. The people, it is true, possessed various means of 
defence ; but when isolated and opposed to the throne, they found these means 
too weak to afford them any hope of victory. Learning, indeed, was no longer 
the exclusive patrimony of any privileged class, but knowledge had not had 
time to become diffused so far as to form a public opinion strong enough to 
exercise any direct influence upon the affairs of government. The art of print- 
ing was already producing its results, but was not yet sufficiently developed to 
produce that rapid and extensive circulation of ideas which has subsequently 
"been attained. Notwithstanding the efforts everywhere made at that time to 
promote the diffusion of knowledge, we need only understand correctly the 
nature and character of the knowledge of the period, to be convinced that 
-neither in substance nor in form was it calculated to become, to any general 
extent, the property of the popular classes. Thanks to the progress of com- 
merce and the arts, there arose, it is true, a new description of wealth, destined 
of necessity to become the patrimony of the people. But commerce and the 
arts were then in their infancy, and did not possess either the extent or the 
influence which, at a later period, connected them intimately with every branch 
of society. Except in some few countries of very little importance, the position 
of the merchant and the artizan could not secure them any great amount of 
influence of itself. 

Considering the course of events, and the elevation which royal power had 
acquired on the ruins of feudalism, the only means for restricting monarchical 
power, until the democratic element should have acquired sufficient force to be 
respected, was the union of the aristocracy with the people. But such a coa- 
lition was not easily to be obtained, since between the aristocracy and the 
people there existed so much animosity and rivalry — a rivalry which, to a cer- 
tain extent, was inevitable, owing to the opposition of their respective interests. 
We must bear in mind, however, that the nobilit} 7 were not the only aristocracy; 
there was another much more powerful and influential than they — the clergy. 
This latter class was at that time possessed of all the ascendency and influence 
which both moral and material means can confer ; in fact, besides the religious 
character, which insured the respect and veneration of the people, they were 
possessed, at the same time, of abundant riches ; which easily secured to them, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



371 



on the one hand, gratitude and influence ; and, on the other, made them feared 
by the great, and respected by monarchs. Now, here is one of the leading 
mistakes of Protestantism : to crush the power of the clergy at such a time, was 
to accelerate the complete victory of absolute monarchy, to leave the people 
defenceless, the monarch unrestrained, aristocracy without a bond of union, 
without a vital principle ; it was to prevent the three elements — monarchy, 
aristocracy, and democracy — from uniting to form a limited government, 
towards which almost all the European nations appeared to be inclining. We 
have already seen that it was not at that time expedient to isolate the people, 
for their political existence was still feeble and precarious ; and it is no less 
evident that the nobility, as a means of government, ought not to have been 
left to themselves. This class, possessing no other vital principle than that 
derived from their titles and privileges, were incapable of resisting the attacks 
continually aimed at them by the royal power. In spite of themselves, the 
nobility were under the necessity of yielding to the monarch's will, of abandon- 
ing their inaccessible castles, to resort to the sumptuous palaces of kings, and 
play the part of courtiers. 

Protestantism crushed the power of the clergy, not only in the countries in 
which it succeeded in implanting its errors, but also in others. In fact, where 
it could not fully introduce itself, its ideas, when not in open opposition to the 
Catholic faith, exercised a certain degree of influence. From that time the 
power of the clergy lost its principal support in the political influence of the 
Popes, for whilst kings assumed a tone of greater boldness against the preten- 
sions of the Holy See, the Popes, on their side, that they might give no 
pretext, no occasion for the declamations of Protestants, were obliged to act 
with great circumspection in every thing relating to temporal affairs. All this 
has been regarded as the progress of European civilization, — as one step 
towards liberty; however, the rapid sketch which I have just given of the 
political condition of that period, clearly proves that, instead of taking the 
surest way to the development of representative forms, the road to absolute 
monarchy was chosen. Protestantism, interested in crushing by all possible 
means the power of the Popes, exalted that of kings even in spiritual matters. 
By thus concentrating in their hands the spiritual and temporal powers, it left 
the throne without any sort of counterpoise. By destroying the hope of 
obtaining liberty by peaceable means, it led the people to have recourse to 
force, and opened the crater of those revolutions which have cost modern 
Europe so many tears. 

In order that the forms of political liberty should take root and attain to 
perfection, they were not to be forced prematurely from the atmosphere which 
gave them birth ; for in this atmosphere existed : together the monarchical, aris- 
tocratical, and popular elements, all strengthened and directed by the Catholic 
religion ; under the influence of this same religion, these elements were being 
gradually combined, politics were not to be separated from religion. Instead 
of regarding the clergy as a fatal element, it was important to look upon them 
as a mediator among all classes and powers, ready to calm the ardor of strife, 
to place bounds against excess, to prevent the exclusive preponderance of the 
monarch, the nobility, or the people. Whenever powers and interests of dif- 
ferent natures are to be combined, a mediator is essential, or some sort of 
intervention to prevent violent shocks ; if this mediator does not exist in the 
very nature of the circumstances, recourse must be had to the law for the cre- 
ation of one. From this it is evident what an evil Protestantism inflicted upon 
Europe ; since its first act was completely to isolate the temporal power, to 
place it in rivalship and hostility to the spiritual, and to leave no mediator 
between the monarch and the people. The lay aristocracy at once lost their 
political influence ; for they had now lost their force and bond of union, which 



372 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



they derived from their connection with the ecclesiastical aristocracy. When 
once the nobles were reduced to mere courtiers, the power of the throne was 
entirely without a counterpoise. 

I have said it, and I repeat it, that the strengthening of the royal power, 
even at the expense of the rights and liberties of the lords and of the commons, 
tended powerfully to the maintenance of public order, and consequently to the 
progress of civilization ; but, at the same time, the extreme preponderance 
obtained by this power is much to be lamented ; and it may be well to reflect, 
that one of the principal causes of this preponderance was the removal of the 
clergy from the sphere of politics. At the commencement of the sixteenth 
century, the question no longer was, whether those numerous castles should 
be left standing, from the heights of which proud barons gave the law to their 
vassals, and held themselves justified in despising the ordinances of the mon- 
arch 5 nor whether that long list of communal liberties should be preserved, 
which had no connection with each other, which were opposed to the preten- 
sions of the great, and at the same time embarrassed the action of the sovereign, 
by preventing the formation of a central government capable of insuring order, 
of protecting legitimate interests, of giving an impulse to the movement of 
civilization, which had everywhere commenced with so much activity. This 
was no longer the question ; on all sides the castles were being levelled, the 
great lords were descending from their fortresses, and becoming more humane 
towards the people ; they were giving up their exactions, and beginning to show 
respect to the power of the monarch ; and the commons, obliged to submit to 
an amalgamation of the multitude of petty states, to form extensive monarchies, 
were forced to part with so much of their rights and liberties as was opposed 
to the system of general centralization. 

The question was, to discover whether there existed any means of limiting 
power, and yet securing to the people the benefits of its centralization and 
augmentation; whether it was possible, without embarrassing or weakening 
the action of power, to secure to the people a reasonable amount of influence 
over the progress of affairs, and, above all, the right they had already acquired 
of watching over the public revenues. That is, at once to prevent the sangui- 
nary horrors of revolutions, and the abuses and disorders of court favorites. 
The people alone were incapable of preserving this influence, unless they had 
been furnished with a knowledge of the public affairs ; an indispensable resource 
in such a case, but of which they were in general completely destitute. I do 
not mean to deny the existence of a certain kind of knowledge amongst the 
commons; but we must bear in mind that the term public affairs had acquired 
an extensive signification ; for it was not merely applied to a municipality or a 
province ; centralization becoming everywhere more general and triumphant, 
caused this term to be applied to whole kingdoms, not merely considered as 
isolated, but in the whole of their relations with other nations. From that 
time European civilization began to assume that character of generality , which 
still distinguishes it : from that time, to understand aright the private affairs 
of any one kingdom, it was necessary to look abroad over the whole of Europe, 
sometimes over the whole world. Men capable of such elevated views could 
not be very common in society; moreover, as the most exalted part of society 
was attracted by the splendor of the throne of the monarch, a focus of intelli- 
gence was sure to be formed there, with exclusive pretensions to the govern- 
ment. Compare with this centre of action and intelligence, the people alone, 
still weak and ignorant, and the result may be easily guessed. Weakness and 
ignorance never prevailed over force and intelligence. But, what remedy was 
there for this difficulty ? The preservation of the Catholic religion all over 
Europe, and consequently the influence of the clergy ; for it is well known that 
the clergy were still considered at this epoch as the centre of learning. 

Those who have extolled Protestantism for having weakened the influence of 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



373 



the Catholic clergy, have not sufficiently reflected upon the nature of that 
influence. It would have been difficult to discover at that epoch a class of 
citizens connected with the three elements of power by common interests with 
each, and yet not exclusively allied to any. Monarchy had nothing to fear 
from the clergy. In fact, how can we imagine that the ministers of a religion 
regarding power as an emanation from Heaven would declare themselves the 
enemies of royal power, which was acknowledged to be at the head of all others ? 
Neither had the aristocracy any thing to apprehend on the part of the clergy, 
so long as they did not outstep the bounds of reason. The titles, by virtue of 
which they claimed the possession of riches, their rights to a certain degree of 
consideration and of precedence were not likely to be combated by a class 
whose principles and interests were necessarily favorable to every thing within 
the bounds of reason, of justice, and of the laws. The democracy, comprising 
the generality of the people, found support and most generous protection in the 
Church. How could the Church, which had labored so much to emancipate 
them from the ancient slavery, and at a later period from feudal chains, declare 
herself the enemy of a class which might be considered as her creature ? If the 
people experienced an amelioration in their civil condition, it was owing to the 
efforts of the clergy j if they acquired political influence, it was owing to the 
amelioration of their condition — another favor obtained through the influence 
of the clergy j and if the. clergy had any where a sure support, it was natural 
to look for it in that popular class which, continually in contact with them, 
received from them their inspirations and instructions. 

Besides, the Church selected her members indiscriminately from all classes. 
To elevate a man to the sacred ministry she required neither titles of nobility 
nor riches, and this alone was sufficient to insure intimate relations between the 
clergy and the people, and to prevent the latter from regarding them with 
aversion and estrangement. Hence the clergy, united to all classes, were an 
element perfectly adapted to prevent the exclusive preponderance of any of 
these classes, to maintain all social elements in a certain gentle and productive 
fermentation, which in time would have produced and matured a natural com- 
bination. I do not mean to assert that there would not have arisen differences, 
disputes, perhaps conflicts, inevitable occurrences so long as men shall be men ; 
but who does not see that the terrible effusion of blood in the wars of Germany, 
in the revolutions of England and France, would have been impossible ? It 
will be said, perhaps, that the spirit of European civilization necessarily tended 
to diminish the extreme inequality of classes; I grant it, and will even add, 
that this tendency was conformable to the principles and maxims of the 
Christian religion, continually reminding men of their equality before God, of 
their common origin and destination, of the emptiness of honors and riches, and 
proclaiming that virtue is the only thing solid upon earth, the only thing 
capable of rendering us pleasing in the eyes of God. But to reform is not to 
destroy ; to cure the disease, we must not kill the patient. It was deemed 
better to overthrow at one blow what might have been corrected by legal means ; 
European civilization having been corrupted by the fatal innovations of the 
sixteenth century, legitimate authority having been disregarded even in matters 
within its exclusive sphere, its mild and beneficent action has been replaced by 
the disastrous expedients of violence. Three centuries of calamity have more 
or less opened the eyes of nations, by teaching them how perilous it is, even 
for the success of an enterprise, to confide it to the cruel hazard of the em- 
ployment of force \ but it is probable that if Protestantism, like an apple of 
discord, had not been thrown into the middle of Europe, all these great social 
and political questions would, at the present time, be much nearer being solved 
in a safe, peaceable, and certain manner, if, indeed, they had not been already 
solved long since. (38) 

2 G 



374 



CHAPTER LXV. 

POLITICAL DOCTRINES BEFORE THE APPEARANCE OF PROTESTANTISM. 

In matters appertaining to representative government, modern political science 
boasts of its great progress : we hear it continually asserting that the school 
in which the deputies of the Constituent Assembly imbibed their lessons was 
totally ignorant of political constitutions. Now when we compare the doctrines 
of the predominating school of the present day with those of the preceding 
school, what difference do we discover between them ? On what points do they 
differ ? Where is this boasted progress ? 

The school of the eighteenth century said : " The king is the natural enemy 
of the people ; his power must either be totally destroyed, or at least so far 
restrained and limited, that he may only appear with his hands tied on the 
summit of the social edifice, merely invested with the faculty of approving the 
measures of the representatives of the people. " And what says the modern 
school, which boasts of its progress, of the advantage it has derived from ex- 
perience, and of having hit the exact point marked out by reason and good 
sense ? " Monarchy," says this school, " is essential to the great European 
nations ; the attempts at republicanism made in America, whatever may be 
their results, require, as yet, the test of time j besides, they were made under 
circumstances very different from those in which we are placed, and conse- 
quently, are not to be imitated by us. The king should not be regarded as the 
enemy of the people, but as their father ; instead of presenting him to public 
view with his hands tied, he should be represented surrounded with power, 
grandeur, and even with majesty and pomp ; without which it is impossible 
for the throne to fulfil the high functions with which it is invested. The king 
should be inviolable — not nominally, but really and effectually, so that his 
power cannot, under any pretext, be attacked. He should be placed in a sphere 
beyond the whirlwind of passion and party, like a tutelar divinity, a stranger 
to mean views and base passions ; he ought to be, as it were, the representative 
of reason and justice/' " Fools," exclaims this school to its adversaries, " can 
you not see that it would be better to have no king at all than such a one as 
you would have ? Your king would always be an enemy to the constitution, for 
he would find this constitution always attacking, embarrassing, restricting, and 
humiliating him." 

We will now compare this progress with the doctrines predominating in 
Europe long before the appearance of Protestantism. This comparison will 
enable us to show clearly that every thing reasonable, just, and useful, con- 
tained in these doctrines, was already known and generally propagated in 
Europe when society was under the exclusive influence of the Catholic Church. 

A king is essential, says the modern school ; and, thanks to the influence of 
the Catholic religion, all the great nations of Europe had a king : the king 
must not be regarded as the enemy, but as the father of the people ; and he was 
already called the father of the people : the power of the king should be great ; 
that power was great: the king should be inviolable, his person sacred; his 
person was sacred, and his prerogative insured to him by the Church from the 
earliest ages, in an august and solemn ceremony, that of his coronation. " The 
people are supreme," said the school of the last century; " the law is the 
expression of the general will, the representatives of the people are alone, 
therefore, invested with legislative faculties \ the monarch cannot resist this 
will. The laws are submitted to his sanction through mere formality ; if the 
king refuses this sanction, the laws are to undergo another examination \ but 
if the will of the representatives of the people still remains the same ; it shall 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



375 



be raised to the dignity of law ; and the monarch who, by the refusal of his 
sanction, shall show that he regards this general will as detrimental to the public 
good, shall be compelled, at the expense of his dignity and independence, to 
give effect to it." 

In reply to this, the modern school says : " The supremacy of the people is 
either unmeaning, or has a dangerous sense ; the law should not be the expres- 
sion of will, but of reason ; mere will does not constitute a law ; for this 
purpose, reason, justice, and public expediency are required/' These ideas 
were general long before the sixteenth century, not only amongst educated 
men, but even among the most simple and ignorant classes. A doctor of the 
thirteenth century admirably expressed it in his habitual laconic language : 
" It is a rule dictated by reason, and having the common weal for its aim." 
" Would you," continued the modern school, " have royal power a truth, you 
must assign it the first place among legislative powers ; you must entrust it 
with an absolute veto. In the ancient cortes, in the ancient states-general and 
parliaments, the king did occupy this place among the legislative powers; 
nothing was done without his consent ; he possessed an absolute veto." 

"Away with classes!" exclaims the Constituent Assembly; "away with 
distinctions ! The king face to face with the people, directly and immediately ; 
the rest is an attempt against imprescriptible rights." " You are rash," replies 
the modern school ; u if there are no distinctions, they must be created. If 
there are not in society classes forming in themselves a second legislative body 
a mediator between the king and the people, there must be artificial ones ; 
through the medium of the law must be created what does not exist in society; 
if reality is wanting, recourse must be had to fiction." Now these classes ex- 
isted in ancient society, they took part in public affairs, they were organized 
as active instruments, they formed the first legislative bodies. I ask now, 
whether this parallel does not show, as clear as the light of day, that what is 
now termed progress in matters of government, is, in fact, a true return towards 
what was every where taught and practised under the influence of the Catholic 
religion before the appearance of Protestantism 1 In addressing myself to men 
endowed with the least intelligence upon social and political questions, I may 
assuredly dispense with the differences which must necessarily result from the 
two epochs. I grant that the course of events would of itself have caused 
important modifications ; political institutions were to be accommodated to the 
fresh wants to be satisfied. But I maintain, at the same time, that, so far as 
circumstances permitted, European civilization was advancing on the right 
road to a better state, containing within itself the means necessary for reforming 
without destroying. But for this purpose a spontaneous development of events 
was necessary to bear in mind that the mere action of man is of little avail, 
that sudden attempts are dangerous ; that the great productions of society are 
like those of nature, both requiring an indispensable element, time. 

There is one fact which appears to me to have been too little reflected upon, 
although including the explanation of some strange phenomena of the last three 
centuries. This fact is, that Protestantism has prevented civilization from 
becoming homogeneous, in spite of a strong tendency urging all the nations of 
Europe to homogeneity. The civilization of the nations without doubt receives 
its nature and its characteristics from the principles that have given it life and 
movement ; now these principles being the same, or very nearly so, in all the 
nations of Europe, these nations must have borne a close resemblance to each 
other. History and philosophy agree on this point ; therefore, so long as the 
European nations did not receive the inculcation of any germ of division, their 
civil and political institutions were developed with a very remarkable simi- 
larity. True, certain differences were observable in them, which were the 
inevitable consequences of a variety of circumstances; but we see that they 



376 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



were becoming more and more alike and forming Europe into one vast whole, 
Of which we can scarcely form a correct idea, accustomed as we are to ideas of 
disunion. This homogeneity would have arrived at its perfection through the 
effect of the rapidity which the increase and prosperity of commerce and the 
arts gave to intellectual and material communications; the art of printing 
would have contributed to it more than anything else, for the ebb and flow of 
ideas would have dispersed the inequalities separating the nations one from 
another. 

But unfortunately, Protestantism appeared and separated the European 
people into two great families, which, since their division, have professed a 
mortal hatred towards each other. This hatred has been the cause of furious 
wars, in which torrents of blood have been shed. One thing yet more fatal 
than these catastrophies was the germ of civil, political, and literary schism, 
introduced into the bosom of Europe by the absence of religious unity. Civil 
and political institutions, and all the branches of learning, had appeared and 
prospered in Europe under the influence of religion ; the schism was religious ; 
it affected even the root, and extended to the branches. Thus arose among 
the various nations those brazen walls which kept them separate ; the spirit of 
suspicion and mistrust was everywhere spread ; things which before would 
have been deemed innocent or without importance, from that time were looked 
upon as eminently dangerous. 

What uneasiness, disquietude, and agitation must have been the result of 
these fatal complications ! We may say that in this detestable germ is con- 
tained the history of the calamities with which Europe was afflicted during the 
last three centuries. To what may we attribute the Anabaptist wars in Ger- 
many, those of the empire, and the Thirty-years war ; those of the Huguenots 
in France, and the bloody scenes of the League ; and that profound source of 
division, that uninterrupted series of discord, which beginning with the 
Huguenots, was continued by the Jansenists, and then by philosophers, termi- 
nating in the Convention ? Had England not contained in her bosom that 
nest of sects engendered by Protestantism, would she have had to suffer the 
disasters of a revolution which lasted so many years ? Had Henry VIII. not 
seceded from the Catholic Church, Great Britain would not have passed two- 
thirds of the sixteenth century in the most atrocious religious persecutions, 
and under the most brutal despotism ; she would not have been drowned during 
the greater part of the seventeenth in torrents of blood, shed by sectarian fana- 
ticism. Had it not been for Protestantism, would England have been in the fatal 
position in which she is placed by the Irish question, scarcely leaving her a 
choice between a dismemberment of the empire and a terrible revolution ? 
Would not nations of brethren have found the means of coming to an amicable 
understanding, if, during the last three centuries, religious discords had not 
separated them by a lake of blood ? Those offensive and defensive con- 
federations between nation and nation, which divided Europe into two parties, 
as inimical to each other as the Christians to the Mussulmans, that traditional 
hatred between the North and the South, that profound separation between 
Protestant and Catholic Germany, between Spain and England, between that 
country and France, were sure to have an extraordinary effect in retarding 
communications between European nations ; and what would have been obtained 
much sooner by moral means, could only be obtained by material ones. Steam 
tends to convert Europe into one vast city ; if men who were one day to live 
under the same roof hated one another for three centuries, what was the cause 
of it ? If people's hearts had been united long before in mutual affection, 
would not the happy moment in which they were to join hands have been 
hastened ? 



377 



CHAPTER LXVI. 

POLITICAL DOCTRINES IN SPAIN. 

My explanation of this matter would be incomplete, were I to leave the fol- 
lowing difficulty unresolved : " In Spain, Catholicity has prevailed exclusively, 
and under it an absolute monarchy was established, a sufficient indication that 
Catholic doctrines are inimical to political liberty." The great majority of 
men never look deeply into the real nature of things, nor pay due attention to 
the true meaning of words. Present them with something in strong relief that 
will make a vivid impression on their imagination, and they take facts just as 
they appear at the first glance, thoughtlessly confounding causality with coinci- 
dence. It cannot be denied that the empire of the Catholic religion coincided 
in Spain with the final preponderance of absolute monarchy ) but the question 
is, Was the Catholic religion the true cause of this preponderance? Was it she 
that overturned the ancient cortes, to establish the throne of absolute monarchs 
on the ruins of popular institutions ? 

Before we commence our examination into the cause that destroyed the in- 
fluence of the nation on public affairs, it may be well to remind the reader 
that in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany, absolutism was established and up- 
held in juxtaposition with Protestantism. Hence the argument of coincidence 
is very little worth, as, owing to the exact identity of circumstances in the two 
cases, it could just as well be proved that Protestantism leads to absolutism. 
I will just observe here, that in my endeavors to demonstrate in the foregoing 
chapters that the pseudo-Reformation tended to the overthrow of political 
liberty, I have not rested my arguments upon coincidences only, however careful 
I may have been to point them out to the reader. I have said that Protestant- 
ism, by diffusing dissolvent doctrines, had occasioned a necessity for an exten- 
sion of temporal power ', that by destroying the political influence of the clergy 
and the Popes, it had destroyed the equilibrium between the social classes, left 
no counterpoise to the throne, and further augmented the power of the 
monarch, by granting him ecclesiastical supremacy in Protestant countries, and 
exaggerating his prerogatives in Catholic nations. 

But we will dismiss these general considerations, and fix our attention upon 
Spain. This nation has the misfortune to be one of those that are least known ; 
its history is not properly studied, nor are sound views taken of its present 
condition. Its troubles, its rebellions, its civil wars, proclaim that it has not 
yet received its true system of government, which proves that the nation to be 
governed is but imperfectly understood. Its history is, if possible, still less 
perfectly understood. The present influence of events already very remote, 
works secretly and almost imperceptibly ; and hence the eye of the observer 
is satisfied with a superficial view of affairs, and he forms his opinions too 
hastily — opinions which too often, in consequence, take the place of facts 
and reality. In treating of the causes that have deprived Spain of her 
political liberty, almost all authors fix their attention principally or exclu- 
sively upon Castile, giving monarchs infinitely more credit for sagacity than 
the course of events would seem to justify. They generally select the war 
of the Communeros as their point of view, and, according to certain writers, 
but for the defeat at Villalar, the liberties of Spain would have been forever 
secure. I admit that the war of the Communeros affords an excellent point of 
view for the study of this matter ; in fact, the field of Villalar was in some 
measure witness to the conclusion of the drama. Castile should be regarded 
as the centre of events ; and it is here that the Spanish monarchs gave proof 
of great sagacity in the manner in which they brought the enterprise to a 
close. Nevertheless, I do not deem it just to give an exclusive preference to one 
48 2 & 2 



378 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



of these considerations, and it does appear to me that the real state of the 
question is generally misconceived : effects are taken for causes, accessories for 
principals. 

In my opinion, the ruin of free institutions resulted from the following 
causes : — 1st, the premature and immoderately extensive development of these 
institutions; 2dly, the formation of the Spanish nation out of a successive 
reunion of very heterogeneous parts, all possessing institutions extremely 
popular; 3dly, the establishment of the centre of power in the middle of the 
provinces where these forms were most restricted, and where the authority of 
the crown was the greatest ; 4thly, the extreme abundance of wealth, the power 
and the splendor which the Spanish people saw everywhere around them, and 
which lulled them to sleep in the arms of prosperity; 5thly, the exclusively 
military position of the Spanish monarchs, whose armies were everywhere vic- 
torious, their military power and prestige being at their height precisely at the 
critical time when the quarrel had to be decided. I will take a rapid view of 
these causes, although the nature of this work does not permit me to devote to 
them the space which the gravity and importance of the subject demand. The 
reader will pardon me this political digression on account of the close con- 
nection existing between this subject and the religious question. 

As regards popular forms of government. Spain has been in advance of all 
monarchical nations. This is an indubitable fact. In Spain, these forms 
received a premature and extreme development ; and this contributed to their 
ruin, as a child sickens and dies, if, in its tender years, its growth is too rapid, 
or its intellect too precocious. This active spirit of liberty, this multitude of 
fueros and of privileges, these impediments everywhere placed in the way of 
power, checking the rapidity and energy of its action — this great development 
of the popular element, in its very nature restless and turbulent, existing 
simultaneously with the wealth, the power, and the pride of the aristocracy, 
very naturally gave rise to many commotions. Elements so numerous, so 
various, and so opposite to each other, which, moreover, had not time to be 
combined so as to form a peaceable and harmonious whole, were not likely to 
work tranquilly together. Order is the prime necessity of society ; it is essen- 
tial to the growth of the ideas, the manners, and the laws of a nation. 
Wherever there exists a germ of continual disorder, how deep soever it may 
have struck its roots, it is sure to be extirpated, or at least crushed, so as no 
longer to keep public tranquillity in perpetual danger. The municipal and 
political organization of Spain had this inconvenience, and hence an imperative 
necessity for its modification. But the ideas and the manners of the time were 
such, that matters could not be expected to stop at a simple modification. The 
system of constituencies, which so easily creates numerous assemblies, either 
to enact new fundamental codes or to reform the old ones, was not then under- 
stood as it is in our days; neither were men's ideas at that time so generalized 
as to place them above all that exclusively and particularly relates to a people, 
at a point of elevation whence they could no longer observe every petty local 
object, but had their attention wholly engrossed by mankind, society, the nation, 
or the government. It was not so at that time : a charter of liberty granted 
hj a king to a city or a town ; an immunity wrested from a feudal lord by his 
armed vassals; some privilege obtained in reward of warlike achievements, or 
sometimes granted as a recompense for the bravery of a man's ancestors; a 
concession to the cortes, made by the monarch in exchange for the grant of a 
contribution, or, as it was then termed, of a service, — a law or custom, the 
antiquity of which lay hidden in the depths of the past, or confounded with 
the infancy of monarchy : such, to give a few instances, were the titles of which 
they were proud, and which they maintained with jealous ardor. 

Liberty now-a-days is more vague, and sometimes less positive, owing to the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



379 



generalization and elevation which men's ideas have assumed 5 but then it is 
far less liable to destruction. Speaking a language well understood by the 
people, and appearing as the common cause of all nations, it awakens universal 
sympathies, and is in a position to found more extensive associations as a gua- 
rantee against the attacks of power. The words liberty, equality, rights of 
man, intervention of the people in public affairs, ministerial responsibility, 
public opinion, liberty of the press, toleration, and other similar ones, do 
undoubtedly contain a great diversity of meanings, which it would be difficult 
to determine and to classify when we come to make a specific application of 
them ; and yet these words present to the mind certain ideas which, although 
complicated and confused, have a false appearance of clearness and simplicity. 
On the other hand, these words represent certain striking objects that dazzle 
the mind by their vivid and flattering colors, and hence they cannot be uttered 
without exciting a lively interest; they are understood by the masses, and 
hence every self-constituted champion of the ideas they convey is at once 
regarded as a defender of the rights of all mankind. But imagine yourself 
living among the people of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and your 
position will be found very different. Take for your subject the franchises of 
Catalonia or of Castile, and address yourself to the Aragonese, who were so 
intractable on the subject of their fueros, and you will produce no effect — will 
not succeed in awakening either their zeal or their interest ; a charter that does 
not contain the name of one of their towns or cities is, in their eyes, a thing of 
no importance, and foreign to their wishes. This inconvenience, originating in 
the ideas of the times, which were naturally confined to local circumstances, 
became very great in Spain, where, under the same sceptre, there was formed 
an amalgamation of people differing most widely in their manners, in their 
municipal and political organization, and divided, moreover, by rivalries and 
animosities. In such a state of things it was comparatively easy to curtail the 
liberties of one province without giving umbrage to the others, or exciting their 
apprehensions for their own liberties. If, at the period of the insurrections of 
the Communeros in Castile against Charles V., there had existed that commu- 
nication of ideas and sentiments, and those lively sympathies, which at the 
present time unite people together, the defeat of Villalar would have been a 
simple defeat and nothing more \ the cry of alarm, resounding throughout Ara- 
gon and Castile, would certainly have given more trouble to the young and 
ill-advised monarch. But such was not the case ; all the efforts of the people 
were isolated, and consequently barren of results. The royal power, proceed- 
ing upon a fixed and steady plan, was able to beat down piecemeal these 
scattered forces, and the result was not doubtful. In 1521, Padilla, Bravo, 
and Maldonado perished on the scaffold; in 1591, D. Diego de Heredia, D. 
Juan de Luna, and the Justiciary himself, D. Antonio de Lanuza, met the same 
fate ; when, in 1640, the Catalonians rose in insurrection for the defence of 
their rights, notwithstanding the manifestos they issued to attract supporters, 
they found no one to assist them. There were then no flying sheets, coming 
every morning to fix the attention of the people upon all sorts of questions, and 
to stir up alarm at the least appearance of danger to their liberties. The peo- 
ple, warmly attached to their customs and usages, satisfied with the nominal 
confirmations which their monarchs were daily giving to their fueros, proud 
also of the respect shown to their ancient liberties, were little aware that they 
were confronted by a sagacious adversary, who never resorted to force but to 
effect a decisive blow, yet constantly held his powerful arm ready to crush 
them. An attentive study of the history of Spain will show that the concen- 
tration of the whole governing power in the hands of the monarch, to the 
exclusion, as far as was possible, of popular influence, dates from the reign of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. Nor is this surprising; for there was then a greater 



380 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



necessity for such a course, and it could be more easily adopted. There was a 
greater necessity; for, from that time, the action of government began to 
extend from one common center over the whole of Spain, the various portions 
of which differed so widely in their laws, their manners, and their customs ; 
hence the central action naturally felt more sensibly the embarrassment occa- 
sioned by so great a diversity of cortes, of municipalities, of codes, and of 
privileges ; and, as every government wishes its action to be rapid and effica- 
cious, the idea of simplifying, uniting, and centralizing their power naturally 
took possession of the kings of Spain. It is, in fact, easy to understand that 
a monarch at the head of numerous armies, with magnificent fleets at his dis- 
posal, who had, on a hundred occasions, humbled his most powerful foes, and 
won the respect of foreign nations, would not like to be continually going to 
preside over the cortes in Castile, in Aragon, in Valencia, and in Catalonia. 
It would undoubtedly cost him dear to be constantly repeating the oath binding 
him to protect the rights and liberties of his subjects, and listening to the per- 
petual strain re-echoed in his ears by the procuradores of Castile, and the 
brazos of Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia. It was hard for him to be obliged 
humbly to solicit from the cortes assistance for the expenses of the state, and 
particularly for almost continual wars. If he submitted to this, it was only 
from the dread of those resolute men, real lions in the battle-field when fighting 
in defence of their religion, their country, and their king, and who would have 
fought with no less intrepidity in their streets and houses, had an attempt been 
made to despoil them of those rights and franchises which they inherited from 
their forefathers. 

The union of the crowns of Aragon and Castile alone so far prepared the 
way for the ruin of popular institutions, that it followed almost necessarily. 
From that time, in fact, the throne had obtained too great a preponderance for 
the fueros of the kingdoms recently united to oppose it with success. To ima- 
gine the existence at that period of a political power capable of resisting the 
crown, we must suppose all the assemblies held from time to time in the 
different kingdoms under the name of cortes united into one grand national 
representative body, with a power analogous to that of the king ; we must sup- 
pose this central assembly actuated by a zeal equal to that of the ancient 
assemblies for the preservation of their fueros and privileges, ready to sacrifice 
all their rivalries to the public good, and advancing towards their object with a 
firm step, in one compact mass, and never giving an advantage to their adver- 
sary. In other words, we must suppose what was utterly impossible at that 
period ; impossible, on account of the ideas, the habits, and the rivalries of the 
people ) impossible, at a time when the people were incapable of comprehending 
the question in so lofty a sense ; impossible, owing to the resistance which it 
would have met with from the monarchs ; to the embarrassment and compli- 
cation, arising from the municipal, social, and political organization. In a 
word, it was something impossible to effect or even to conceive. 

Every circumstance was in favor of the aggrandizement of the royal power. 
The monarch being no longer merely king of Aragon or of Castile, but of Spain, 
the ancient kingdoms dwindled into insignificance before the majesty and the 
splendor of the throne, and sank by degrees to the rank which alone suited 
them, that of provinces. From that moment the action of the monarch became 
more extensive and complicated, and consequently he could not come so fre- 
quently into contact with his vassals. The celebration of the cortes in each of 
the recently united kingdoms, would have occasioned long delays ; for the king 
was oftentimes engaged at another part of the empire. When sedition was to 
be chastised, abuses to be checked, or excesses to be repressed, he was no 
longer obliged to have recourse to the forces of the particular kingdom in which 
these things occurred, as he could employ the arms of Castile to subdue insur- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



381 



rection in the kingdom of Aragon, and those of Aragon to put down the rebels 
of Castile. Grenada lay at his feet ; Italy yielded to one of his victorious 
captains; in his fleet was Columbus, who had just discovered a new world; 
under these circumstances, it was in vain to listen for the murmurs of the 
cortes and of ayuntamientos, — these were no longer heard, they had totally 
disappeared. 

Had the national manners had a peaceable tendency, had not Spain been 
habituated to war, democratic institutions would probably have been preserved 
with less difficulty. Had the attention of the people been fixed exclusively upon 
their municipal and political affairs, they would have better understood their 
real interests ; kings themselves would not have been so ready to rush into war, 
and the throne would in some degree have lost the prestige it obtained from 
the splendor and success of its armies ; the administration would not have been 
imbued with that blunt harshness for which military habits are always more 
or less remarkable ; and the ancient fueros would thus have more easily retained 
some consideration. But precisely at that period Spain was the most warlike 
nation in the world ; it was in its element on the battle-field ; seven centuries 
of combats had made it a nation of soldiers. Its recent victories over the 
Moors ; the exploits of its armies in Italy ; the discoveries of Columbus ; every 
thing, in fine, contributed to its exaltation, and to inspire it with that spirit of 
chivalry which, for so long a time, was one of its distinguishing characteristics. 
It was necessary for the king to be a captain ; and he was certain to captivate 
the minds of Spaniards, so long as he won renown by brilliant feats of arms. 
Now, arms are the bane of popular institutions. After a victory on the field 
of battle, the order and discipline of the camp are usually transferred to the 
city. 

From the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, the throne rose to such a height 
of power that liberal institutions were almost lost sight of. The people and 
the grandees, it is true, re-appeared upon the scene after the death of Isabella ; 
but this was entirely owing to the misunderstanding between Ferdinand the 
Catholic and Philip le Bel, which impaired the unity, and consequently the 
strength of the throne ; and hence, as soon as these circumstances disappeared, 
the throne again resumed its full preponderance, and that not only during the 
last days of Ferdinand, but even under the regency of Ximenes. The men of 
Castile, exasperated by the excesses of the Flemish, and encouraged perhaps 
by the hope, that the rule of a young monarch would be, as it usually is, only 
feeble, again raised their voices ; their remonstrances and complaints speedily 
ended in commotions and in open insurrection. Notwithstanding many cir- 
cumstances highly favorable to the Oommuneros, and the probability that 
their conduct would be followed by all the provinces of the monarchy, we find 
that the insurrection, although considerable, did not assume either the import- 
ance or extent of a national movement ; a great portion of the Peninsula pre- 
served a strict neutrality, and the rest inclined to the cause of monarchy. If 
I am not mistaken, this fact indicates that the throne had already obtained an 
immense prestige, and was regarded as the highest and most powerful institu- 
tion. The entire reign of Charles V. was extremely well calculated to perfect 
this beginning. Commenced under the auspices of the battle of Villalar, this 
reign continued through an uninterrupted series of wars, in which the treasures 
and the blood of Spain were spent with incredible profusion in all the countries 
of Europe, Africa, and America. The nation was not allowed time even to 
think of its affairs : almost always deprived of the presence of its king, it had 
become a province at the diposal of the Emperor of Germany, the ruler of 
Europe. True, the cortes of 1538 boldly gave Charles a severe lecture instead 
of the succor he demanded. But it was already too late ; the clergy and the 
nobility were expelled from the cortes, and the representation of Castile was 



382 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



restricted for the future to the procuradores alone ; that is, it was doomed to be 
no more than the shadow of what it had been — a mere instrument of the 
royal will. 

Much has been said against Philip II. ; but, in my opinion, this monarch 
merely kept his place, and allowed things to take their natural course. The 
crisis was already past; the question already decided; the Spanish nation 
could not regain its lost influence, save by the regenerating action of centuries. 
Still, we must not imagine that absolute power was so fully and completely 
established as to leave not a vestige of ancient liberty ; but this liberty could 
do nothing from its asylum in Aragon and Catalonia against the giant that 
held it in check from the midst of a country entirely subject to his swa} T , from 
the capital of Castile. The monarchs might probably, by one bold and heavy 
blow, have struck down every thing that opposed them ; but whatever proba- 
bilities of success they had in the vast means at their disposal, they were very 
careful not to make the attempt, but left the inhabitants of Navarre, the sub- 
jects of the crown of Aragon, in the tranquil enjoyment of their franchises, 
rights, and privileges. At the same time, they were careful to prevent the 
contagion spreading to the other provinces. By means of partial attacks, and 
more especially by leading the people to allow their ancient liberties to fall 
into desuetude, they gradually diminished their zeal for them, and insensibly 
brought them to a habit of tamely bending under the action of a central 
power. (39) 



CHAPTER LXVII. 

POLITICAL LIBERTY AND RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE. 

In the sketch I have here drawn, the rigorous accuracy of which no one can 
question, we have not discovered any thing like oppression in Catholicity, nor 
any alliance between the clergy and the throne for the destruction of liberty : 
what we have discovered is merely the regular and natural order of things, — 
a successive development of events contained in each other, as the plant is 
contained in the germ. As for the Inquisition, I think I have said enough re- 
specting it in the chapters that treat of it : in this place I will merely observe, 
that it was not a political instrument in the hands of kings, ready to be used 
at their beck. Religion was its object ; and as we have seen, far from losing 
sight of this object to suit the wishes of the sovereign, it unhesitatingly con- 
demned the doctrines that would have unjustly extended the powers of the 
monarch. Shall I be told, that the Inquisition was in its very nature intoler- 
ant, and consequently opposed to the growth of liberty ? I answer, that toler- 
ation, as now understood, had at that time no existence in any European 
country. Besides, it was under the direct and full influence of religious in- 
tolerance that the people were emancipated, municipalities organized, the system 
of large representative assemblies established, which, under different names, 
and more or less directly, interfered in public affairs. 

Men's ideas were not yet so far perverted as to lead them to believe that 
religion was favorable and conducive to the oppression of the people ; on the 
contrary, we observe in the hearts of these people a vehement desire for liberty 
and progress, whilst at the same time they clung with enthusiasm to a faith, in 
the sight of which it appeared to them just and salutary to refuse toleration to 
any doctrine at variance with the teaching of the Church of Rome. Unity of 
faith does not fetter the people — does not impede their movements in any direc- 
tion — as well, indeed, might it be said, that the mariner is fettered by the com- 
pass that guides him in safety through the wide expanse of waters. Was the 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



383 



ancient unity of European civilization wanting in grandeur, in variety, or in 
beauty ? Did Catholic unity, presiding over the destinies of society, arrest its 
progress, even in the ages of barbarism ? Let us fix our eyes upon the grand 
and delightful spectacle exhibited in the centuries preceding the sixteenth, and 
pause a moment to reflect ; we shall all the better understand in what manner 
Protestantism has given a wrong direction to the course of civilization. 

The immense agitation occasioned by the gigantic enterprise of the Crusades 
shows in what a state of fermentation were the elements deposited in the bosom 
of society. The shock excited them to activity — union augmented their force 
— every where, and in every sense, was to be seen a vigorous and active move- 
ment, a sure presage of the high degree of civilization and refinement which 
Europe was about to attain. The arts and sciences, as if called into life by 
some powerful voice, reappeared, loudly asserting their claim to protection and 
an honorable reception. On the feudal castles, those heirlooms of the man- 
ners of the period of conquest, a ray of light suddenly gleamed, that illumin- 
ated with the rapidity of lightning all climates and all people. Those masses 
of men, who had hitherto bent in painful toil for the benefit of their masters, 
now lifted up their heads, and, with bold hearts and enfranchised lips, demanded 
a share in social advantages. Addressing each other with a look of intelli- 
gence, they combined together, and insisted in common that the law should be 
substituted for caprice. Then towns sprang up, increased in size and import- 
ance, and were surrounded with ramparts ; municipal institutions arose, and 
began to develop themselves; kings, till then the sport of the pride, ambition 
or stubbornness of the feudal lords, seized upon an opportunity so favorable, 
and made common cause with the people. Threatened with destruction, feud- 
alism entered valiantly into the contest, but in vain ; and, restrained by a power 
even more irresistible than the weapons of its adversaries, and, as if oppressed 
by the air it breathed, it felt its action impeded, its energies enfeebled, and, 
despairing of victory, it gave itself up to the enjoyment to be found in the 
patronage of the arts. 

To the coat of mail now succeeded elegance of dress ; to the powerful shield, 
the pompous escutcheon ; to the bearing and address of the warrior, the man- 
ners of the courtier : — thus was the whole power of feudalism undermined ; the 
popular element was left completely at liberty to develop itself ; and the powers 
of monarchs became every day more extensive. Royalty thus strengthened, 
municipal institutions in full vigor, and feudalism undermined, the remnants 
of barbarism and oppression still existing in the laws fell one by one beneath 
the attacks of so many adversaries; and, for the first time in the world's history, 
there was seen a considerable number of great nations presenting the peaceful 
spectacle of many millions of men living in social union, and enjoying together 
the rights of men and of citizens. Until this period, public tranquillity, and 
even the very existence of society, had to be secured by carefully excluding 
from the working of the political machine a great number of individuals by 
means of slavery — a system that proved at once the intrinsic inferiority and 
weakness of the governments of antiquity. The Christian religion, with the 
courage inspired by the consciousness of strength, and with an ardent love for 
humanity, had never doubted that she held in her hands other means of re- 
straining men than a recourse to degradation and violence, and had, in fact, 
resolved the problem in a manner the most noble and generous. She had said 
to society : " Dost thou dread this immense multitude, that have no sufficient 
titles to thy confidence ? I will stand security for them. Thou enslavest them ; 
thou puttest chains around their necks ; I will subdue their hearts. Leave 
them free ; and this multitude, before which thou tremblest as before a herd of 
wild beasts, will become a class of men serviceable to themselves and to thee." 
This voice had been heard, and all men were freed from the yoke of slavery — 



384 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



all entered upon this noble struggle, which was to place society in equilibrium, 
without destroying or shaking its foundations. We have already said above, 
that there existed powerful adversaries. Shocks more or less violent were 
inevitable j but there was no cause for anticipating any serious catastrophe, 
unless some fatal combination of circumstances arose to overthrow the only 
power capable of moderating the inflamed, and sometimes exasperated, passions 
of men — to impose silence upon that powerful voice, ever ready to say to the 
combatants, That is enough. That voice — the voice of Christianity — might 
have been heard with greater or less docility • but it would always have sufficed 
to calm down the fury of the passions, to moderate the fierceness of their con- 
flicts, and thus to prevent scenes of bloodshed. 

If we take a glance at Europe at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of 
the sixteenth centuries, with a view to discover the social elements, whose 
struggle seemed likely to disturb public tranquillity, we shall find the power 
of the throne already far superior to that of the lords and of the people ; we 
shall see it endeavoring to please its rivals, lending its aid to one for the sub- 
jugation of the others : but already this power was evidently indestructible. 
Held more or less in check by the proud remnants of feudalism, and by the 
ever-growing and encroaching power of the people, monarchy nevertheless 
maintained its position as a central force for the protection of society against 
violence and excess. This tendency was so strong, that we every where meet 
with the same phenomenon, manifested with more or less distinctness, and with 
characters of greater or less identity. The nations of Europe were great both 
in numbers and extent ; the abolition of slavery gave a sanction to the prin- 
ciple, that man ought to live free in the midst of society, enjoying its most 
essential advantages, and with sufficient room to enable him to take a more or 
less elevated rank, according to the means he employs to gain it. Thus society 
had said to each individual : " I acknowledge thee as a man and a citizen ; from 
this moment I guarantee to thee the possession of these titles. If thou desirest 
to lead a quiet life in the bosom of thy family — labor and be careful ; no one 
shall wrest from thee the rewards of thy labors, nor trammel the free exercise 
of thy faculties. Dost thou aspire to the possession of wealth — consider how 
others have acquired it, and display a similar activity and intelligence. Art 
thou ambitious of fame, of rising to an elevated rank, to splendid titles — the 
sciences and the military profession are before thee. If thou hast inherited an 
illustrious name, thou mayest still increase its lustre ; if thou art not in pos- 
session of such a name, thou art free to acquire one." 

Such was the condition of the social problem at the end of the fifteenth 
century. Every thing was made public, all the great means of action were 
openly developing themselves with rapidity ; the art of printing already trans- 
mitted men's thoughts from one end of the world to the other with the speed 
of lightning, and insured their preservation for the benefit of future genera- 
tions. The frequent intercourse between nations, the revival of literature and 
the arts, the cultivation of the sciences, the inclination for travelling and com- 
merce, the discovery of a new passage to the East Indies, the discovery of 
America, the preference given to political negotiations for effecting the arrange- 
ments of international relations, — every thing combined to give to the minds 
of men that strong impulse, that shock which at once arouses and develops all 
their faculties, and gives new life. It is difficult to understand by what process 
of reasoning, in the face of facts so positive and certain, — facts that stand so 
prominently forward in every page of history, any man could ever seriously 
maintain that Protestantism aided human progress. If previous to Luther's 
reform society had been found stationary, and still submerged in the chaos 
into which it had been plunged by the irruptions of the barbarians ; if the people 
had not succeeded, previously to that reform, in forming themselves into great 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



385 



nations, and in providing themselves with systems of government more or less 
perfectly organized, but all unquestionably superior to any that had hitherto 
existed, — the assertion might carry with it a degree of plausibility, or, at all 
events, it would not stand, as it unfortunately does, in direct opposition to 
the most authentic and notorious facts. But what, on the contrary, was the 
actual state of Europe at the time of Luther's appearance ? The administration 
of justice, exercised with more or less perfection, already possessed a highly 
moral, rational, and equitable system of legislation for the guidance of its 
decisions ; the people had in great part shaken off the yoke of feudalism, and 
had acquired abundant resources for the preservation and defence of their 
liberties ; the executive had made immense progress, owing to the establish- 
ment, extension, and amelioration of municipalities; the royal authority, 
enlarged, fortified, and consolidated, formed in the midst of society a 
central force powerful to work good, to prevent evil, to restrain the passions, to 
preserve the balance of interests, to prevent ruinous social contests, and to 
watch over the general welfare of society by constant protection and effectual 
encouragement ; in fine, at that period nations were seen to fix a look of great 
foresight and sagacity on the rock upon which the vessel of society is in danger 
of being wrecked, whenever the power of royalty is left without any sort of 
counterpoise. Such was already the condition of Europe before the religious 
revolution of the sixteenth century. 

I promptly concede that great progress has been made since that period in 
all matters of a social, political and administrative nature ; but does it follow 
that this progress is owing to the Protestant Reformation ? To prove that it is, 
it would be necessary to produce two societies absolutely similar in position 
and circumstances, but separated by a long space of time, that would 
render all reciprocal influence between them impossible, and subjected, One 
to the influence of the Catholic, the other to the Protestant principle ; then 
each of the two religions might come forward and say to the world, " This is 
my work." But it is absurd to compare, as is often done, times so widely dif- 
ferent, circumstances so utterly dissimilar and exceptional with ordinary cases ; 
it should also be remembered, that, in every thing, the first step is always the 
most difficult, and the greatest merit is always due to invention ; in a word, 
after so many other violations of the rules of logic, our opponents should not 
obstinately persist in deducing from one single fact all other facts, simply 
because the latter happen to be posterior to the former, otherwise they will 
fall under suspicion of insincerity in their search after truth, and of a wish to 
. falsify history. 

The organization of European society, such as Protestantism found it, was, 
assuredly not perfect, but it was, at all events, as perfect as was possible. Unless 
Providence had vouchsafed to govern the world by prodigies, Europe, at this 
period, could not have attained to a more advantageous position. The elements 
of progress, of happiness, of civilization and refinement, were in her bosom ; they 
were numerous and powerful ; time was developing them by degrees in a man- 
ner truly wonderful ; and as mournful experience is every day lessening the 
prestige and credit of destructive doctrines, the time is perhaps not far distant, 
when philosophers, examining dispassionately this period of history, will agree 
that society had even then received the most fortunate impulse. It will be seen 
that Protestantism, by giving a wrong direction to the march of society, only pre- 
cipitated it upon a perilous route, where it has been on the brink of ruin; and 
would perhaps have been ruined altogether, had not the hand of the Most High 
been stronger than the feeble arm of man. Protestants boast of having rendered 
great service to society by having destroyed in some countries, and impaired 
in others, the power of the Popes. As regards the Papal supremacy in rela- 
tion to matters of faith, what 1 have elsewhere said will suffice to demonstrate 
49 2 H 



386 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the disastrous consequences of the exercise of private judgment ; as to discip- 
line, I am unwilling to enter upon questions that would indefinitely extend the 
limits of this work. I will merely ask my opponents, whether they deem it pru- 
dent to leave a society co-extensive with the world without a legislator, without a 
judge, without an arbitrator, without a counsellor, without a chief? 

Temporal power. — This term has long been the bugbear of kings — the 
watchword of the anti-Catholic party — a snare into which many upright men 
have fallen — a butt for the shafts of discontented statesmen, disappointed 
writers, and snarling canonists; and nothing more natural, seeing that the 
subject afforded them an opportunity of pouring out their resentments, and of 
giving currency to their suspicious doctrines, well assured that, by affecting 
zeal for the power of the monarch, they would find, in case of danger, a ready 
asylum in the palaces of kings. The present is not the place for the discus- 
sion of a question that has been the subject of so many vehement and learned 
disputes j and it would be the more inopportune, as, in the existing state of 
things, assuredly no power apprehends the least temporal usurpation on the 
part of the Holy See, which, whatever its enemies may say, has evinced at all 
times, and even humanly speaking, more prudence, tact, patience, and wisdom 
than any other power upon earth ; and amidst the extreme difficulties of modern 
times, has taken up a position that enables it to yield to the various exigencies 
of the times without any compromise of its high dignity, without any deviation 
from its sublime obligations. It is certain that the temporal power of the 
Popes had risen in the course of time to such a height, that the successor of St. 
Peter had become a universal counsellor, arbitrator, and judge, from whose 
sentence it was dangerous to appeal, even in purely political matters. The general 
movement throughout Europe had somewhat weakened this power ; but yet, at 
the moment when Protestantism made its appearance, it still had such an as- 
cendency over the minds of men, it commanded so much veneration and respect, 
and was possessed of such vast means for defending its rights, enforcing its 
pretensions, supporting its decisions, and making its counsels respected, that 
the most powerful monarchs of Europe considered it a very serious matter to 
have the Court* of Rome opposed to them in any affair whatever ; and conse- 
quently they eagerly sought on all occasions, to secure its favor and friendship. 
Rome had thus become a general centre of negotiation, and no affair of impor- 
tance could escape its influence. 

Such have been the outcries raised against the colossal power, against this 
pretended usurpation of rights, that one might suppose the Popes to have been 
a succession of deep conspirators, who, by their intrigues and artifices, aimed 
at nothing short of universal monarchy. As our opponents plume themselves 
on their spirit of observation and historical analysis, I felt it necessary to 
observe, that the temporal power of the Popes was strengthened and extended 
at a time when no other power was as yet really constituted. To call that 
power usurpation therefore, is not merely an inaccuracy — it is an anachronism. 
In the general confusion brought upon all European society by the irruptions 
of the barbarians, in that strange medley of races, laws, manners, and tradi- 
tions, there remained only one solid foundation for the structure of the edifice 
of civilization and refinement, only one luminous body to shine upon the chaos, 
only one element capable of giving life to the germ of regeneration that lay 
buried in blood-stained ruins — Christianity, predominant over and annihilating 
the remains of other religions, arose, in this age of desolation, like a solitary 
column in the center of a ruined city, or like a bright beacon amid darkness. 

Barbarians, and proud of their triumphs as they were, the conquering people 
bowed their heads beneath the pastoral staff that governs the flock of Jesus 
Christ. The spiritual pastors, a body of men quite new to these barbarians, 
and speaking a lofty and divine language, obtained over the chiefs of the fero- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



387 



cious hordes from the north a complete and permanent ascendency, which the 
course of ages could not destroy. Such was the foundation of the temporal 
power in the Church ; and it will be easily conceived that as the Pope towered 
above all the other pastors in the ecclesiastical edifice, like a superb cupola 
above the other parts of a magnificent temple, his temporal power must have 
risen far higher than that of ordinary bishops ; and must also have had a deeper, 
more solid, and more lasting foundation. All the principles of legislation, all 
the foundations of society, all the elements of intellectual culture, all that 
remained of the arts and sciences, all was in the hands of religion ; and all very 
naturally sought protection from the pontifical throne, the only power acting 
with order, concert, and regularity, and the only one that offered any guarantee 
for stability and permanence. Wars succeeded to wars, convulsions to convul- 
sions, the forms of society were continually changing; but the one great, 
general, and dominant fact, the stability and influence of religion, remained 
still the same : and it is ridiculous in any man to declaim against a phenomenon 
so natural, so inevitable, and, above all, so advantageous, designating it, " A 
succession of usurpations of temporal power." 

Power, ere it can be usurped, must exist ; and where, I pray, did temporal 
power then exist ? Was it in kings ? — the sport, and frequently the victims 
of the haughty barons ? In the feudal lords ? — continually engaged in contests 
amongst themselves, with kings, and with the people ? In fine, was it in the 
people ? — a troop of slaves, who, thanks to the efforts of religion, were slowly 
working out their freedom ? The people, it is true, united against the lords — 
they raised their voices to demand protection from the monarch, or to solicit 
the aid of the Church against the vexations and outrages inflicted on them by 
both ; still, however, they as yet formed but an unorganized embryo of society, 
without any fixed rule, without government, and without laws. Could we 
honestly compare modern times with these ? Could we apply to these bygone 
ages restrictions and distinctions of authority that are admissible only in a state 
of society in which the elements of life and civilization have been developed, 
in which solid and permanent foundations have been laid, in which, conse- 
quently, the functions of social authority could be, and have in effect been, 
regulated, after a minute analysis of the limits of their respective jurisdictions ? 
To reason otherwise, would be to seek order in chaos, smoothness on the sur- 
face of a tempest-tossed ocean. We should not forget, either, a general and 
unvarying fact, founded on the very nature of things, — a fact, moreover, to 
which the history of all times and all countries is continually calling our atten- 
tion, and which has received a striking confirmation from the revolutions of 
modem times, — viz. that whenever society is deeply diseased, there is always 
at hand a principle of life to stay the progress of the malady. A contest takes 
place — collisions occur one after another — they become more frequent and more 
violent ; but ultimately the principle of order prevails over that of disorder, and 
continues long afterwards to predominate in society. This principle may be 
more or less just, more or less rational, more or less violent, more or less ade- 
quate to attain its object; but whatever it be in these respects, it always 
prevails in the end, unless, during the struggle, another, a better and more 
powerful principle takes its place. 

Now, in the middle ages, this principle was the Christian Church. She alone 
could be this principle, for she had truth in her doctrines, justice in her laws, 
and regularity and prudence in her government. She was the only element of 
life that existed at this period — the only depository of the grand idea upon 
which the reorganization of society depended ; and this idea was not vague and 
abstract, but positive and practicable, for it proceeded from the lips of Him 
whose word calls forth worlds out of nothing, and makes light to shine forth in 
the midst of darkness. When once the sublime doctrines of the Church had 



388 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



penetrated into the heart of society, her pure, fraternal, and consoling morality 
necessarily influenced its manners. Forms of government also, and systems 
of legislation were, in like manner, more or less affected by her mild and pow- 
erful influence. These are facts — undeniable facts. Now, the Roman Pontiffs 
were the center of this happy preponderance which religion so legitimately 
obtained and so justly deserved ; hence it is clear that the power of the Holy 
See very naturally rose above all other powers. 

After having contemplated this sublime picture, drawn from the plain and 
authentic records of history, why dwell on the defects or the vices of some few 
individuals ? Why drag to light the excesses, the errors, the disorders ever 
incident to humanity ? Why maliciously seek out facts through a long suc- 
cession of obscure ages, collecting them together and placing them in a light 
most calculated to make an impression, and to mislead the ignorant? Why, 
in fine, urge, exaggerate, disfigure, and paint these facts in the darkest possible 
colors ? To do so, is to betray a very shallow understanding of the philosophy 
of history, a spirit of great partiality, low views, grovelling sentiments, and 
miserable spleen. It should be loudly proclaimed to the whole world, and a 
thousand times repeated, that it may never be forgotten, that limits which have 
no existence cannot be respected — that to create power is not to usurp it — that 
to make laws is not to violate them — that to reduce to order the chaos in which 
society is overwhelmed is not to disturb society. Now this was the work of 
the Church — this is what was done by the Popes. (40) 



CHAPTER LXVIII. 

UNITY IN FAITH NOT ADVERSE TO POLITICAL LIBERTY. 

The supposed incompatibility of unity in faith with political liberty is an 
invention of the irreligious philosophy of the last century. Whatever political 
opinions be adopted, it is of extreme importance that we be on our guard 
against such a doctrine. We must not forget that the Catholic religion occu- 
pies a sphere far above all forms of government — she does not reject from her 
bosom either the citizen of the United States, or the inhabitant of Russia, but 
embraces all men with equal tenderness, commanding all to obey the legitimate 
governments of their respective countries. She considers them all as children 
of the same father, participators in the same redemption, heirs to the same 
glory. It is very important to bear in mind that irreligion allies itself to liberty 
or to despotism, according as its interests incline; lavish of its applause when 
an infuriated populace are burning temples and massacring the ministers of the 
altar, it is ever ready to flatter monarchs, to exaggerate their power beyond 
measure, whenever they win its favor by despoiling the clergy, subverting dis- 
cipline, and insulting the Pope. Caring little what instruments it employs, 
provided it accomplishes its work, it is royalist when in a position to sway the 
minds of kings, to expel the Jesuits from France, from Spain, from Portugal, 
to pursue them to the four quarters of the globe without allowing them either 
respite or repose ; liberal in the midst of popular assemblies that exact sacri- 
legious oaths from the clergy, and send into exile or to the scaffold the minis- 
ters of religion who remain faithful to their duty. 

The man who cannot see that what I have advanced is strictly true, must 
have forgotten history, and paid little attention to very recent occurrences. 
With religion and morality, all forms of government are good ; without them, 
none can be good. An absolute monarch, imbued with religious ideas, sur- 
rounded by counsellors of sound doctrines, and reigning over a people amongst 
whom the same doctrines prevail, may make his subjects happy, and will be sure 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



389 



to do so as far as circumstances of time and place permit. A wicked monarch, 
or one surrounded by wicked counsellors, will do mischief in proportion to the 
extent of his powers; he will be even more to be dreaded than revolution itself, 
because better able to arrange his plans, and to carry them out more rapidly, 
with fewer obstacles, a greater appearance of legality, more pretensions to pub- 
lic utility, and consequently with more certainty of success and of permanent 
results. Revolutions have undoubtedly done great injury to the Church; but 
persecuting monarchs have done equally as much. A freak of Henry VIII. 
established Protestantism in England j the cupidity of certain other princes 
produced a like result in the nations of the north ; and in our own days, a 
decree of the Autocrat of Russia drives millions of souls into schism. It fol- 
lows that an unmixed monarchy, if it be not religious, is not desirable ; for 
irreligion, immoral in its nature, naturally tends to injustice, and consequently 
to tyranny. If irreligion be seated on an absolute throne, or if she hold pos- 
session of the mind of its occupant, her powers are unlimited ; and, for my part, 
I know nothing more horrible than the omnipotence of wickedness. 

In recent times, European democracy has signalized itself lamentably by its 
attacks upon religion ; a circumstance which, far from favoring its cause, has 
injured it extremely. We can indeed form an idea of a government more or 
less free, when society is virtuous, moral, and religious ; but not when these 
conditions are wanting. In the latter case, the only form of government that 
remains is despotism, the rule of force, for force alone can govern men who are 
without conscience and without Grod. If we attentively consider the points of 
difference between the revolution of the United States and that of France, we 
shall find that one of the principal points of difference consists in this, that the 
x\merican revolution was essentially democratic, that of France essentially im- 
pious. In the manifestos by which the former was inaugurated, the name of 
Grod, of Providence, is every where seen ; the men engaged in the perilous 
enterprise of shaking off the yoke of Great Britain, far from blaspheming the 
Almighty, invoke his assistance, convinced that the cause of independence was 
the cause of reason and of justice. The French began by deifying the leaders 
of irreligion, overthrowing altars, watering with the blood of priests the tem- 
ples, the streets, and the scaffolds — the only emblem of revolution recognized 
by the people is Atheism hand in hand with liberty. This folly has borne its 
fruits — it communicated its fatal contagion to other revolutions in recent times 
— the new order of things has been inaugurated with sacrilegious crimes; and 
the proclamation of the rights of man was begun by the profanation of the 
temples of Him from whom all rights emanate. 

Modern demagogues, it is true, have only imitated their predecessors the 
Protestants, the Hussites, the Albigenses ; with this difference, however, that in 
our days irreligion has manifested itself openly, side by side with its companion, 
the democracy of blood and baseness ; whilst the democracy of former times 
was allied with sectarian fanaticism. The dissolving doctrines of Protest- 
antism rendered a stronger power necessary, precipitated the overthrow of 
ancient liberties, and obliged authority to hold itself continually on the alert, 
and ready to strike. When the influence of Catholicity had been enfeebled, 
the void had to be filled up by a system of espionage and force. Do not for- 
get this, you who make war upon religion in the name of liberty ; do not forget 
that like causes produce like effects. Where moral influences do not exist, 
their absence must be supplied by physical force : if you take from the people 
the sweet yoke of religion, you leave governments no other resource than the 
vigilance of police, and the force of bayonets. Reflect, and choose. Before 
the advent of Protestantism, European civilization, under the aegis of the Ca- 
tholic religion, was evidently tending towards that general harmony, the ab- 
sence of which has rendered necessary an excessive employment of force. Unity 

2 H 2 



390 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



of faith disappeared, opening the way to an unrestrained liberty of opinion and 
religious discord ; the influence of the clergy was in some countries destroyed, 
in others weakened : thus was the equilibrium between different classes put an 
end to, and the class naturally destined to fill the office of mediator rendered 
powerless. By abridging the power of the Popes, both people and governments 
were let loose from that gentle curb which restrained without oppressing, and 
corrected without degrading ; kings and people were arrayed against each other, 
without any body of men possessed of authority to interpose between them in 
case of a conflict; without a single judge, who, the friend of both parties, and 
disinterested in the quarrel, might have settled their differences with imparti- 
ality, governments began to place their reliance upon standing armies, and the 
people upon insurrections. 

And it is of no avail to allege that in countries where Catholicity prevailed, 
a political phenomenon arose similar to that which we observe in Protestant 
nations ; for I maintain that amongst Catholics themselves events did not 
follow the course which they naturally would have followed, had not the fatal 
Reformation intervened. To attain its complete development, European civi- 
lization required the unity from which it had sprung ; it could not by any other 
means establish harmony amongst the diverse elements which it sheltered in its 
bosom. Its homogeneity was gone the moment unity of faith disappeared. 
From that hour no nation could adequately effect its organization without tak- 
ing into account, not only its own internal wants, but also the principles that 
prevailed in other countries, against the influence of which it had to be on its 
guard. Do you suppose, for instance, that the policy of the Spanish govern- 
ment, constituted as it was the protector of Catholicity against powerful Pro- 
testant nations, was not powerfully influenced by the peculiar and very dan- 
gerous position of the country ? 

I think I have shown that the Church has never been opposed to the legiti- 
mate development of any form of government ; that she has taken them all 
under her protection, and consequently that to assert that she is the enemy of 
popular institutions is a calumny. I have also placed it equally beyond a 
doubt, that the sects hostile to the Catholic Church, by encouraging a demo- 
cracy either irreligious or blinded by fanaticism, so far from aiding in the 
establishment of just and rational liberty, have, in fact, left the people no 
alternative between unbridled licentiousness and unrestrained despotism. The 
lesson thus furnished by history is confirmed by experience ) and the future 
will serve only to corroborate its truth. The more religious and moral men 
are, the more deserving they are of liberty ; for they have then less need of 
external restraints, having a most powerful one in their own consciences. An 
irreligious and immoral people stand in need of some authority to keep them 
in order, otherwise they will be constantly abusing their rights, and will con- 
sequently deserve to lose them. St. Augustine perfectly understood these 
truths, and explains briefly and beautifully the conditions necessary for all 
forms of government. The holy Doctor shows that popular forms are good 
where the people are moral and conscientious j where they are corrupt, they 
require either an oligarchy or an unmixed monarchy. 

I have no doubt that an interesting passage, in the form of a dialogue, that 
we meet with in his first book on Free Will, chap, vi., will be read with 
pleasure. 

" Augustine. You would not maintain, for instance, that men or people are 
so constituted by nature as to be absolutely eternal, and subject neither to 
destruction nor change 1—Evodius. Who can doubt that they are changeable, 
and subject to the influence of time? — Augustine. If the people are serious 
and temperate ; and if, moreover, they have such a concern for the public good 
that each one would prefer the public interest to his own, is it not true that it 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



391 



would be advisable to enact that such a people should choose their own authorities 
for the administration of their affairs? — Evodius. Certainly. — Augustine. 
But, in case these same people become so corrupt that the citizens p, efer their 
own to the public good; if they sell their votes; if, corrupted by ambitious men, 
they intrust the government of the state to men as criminal and corrupt as them- 
selves ; is it not true that, in such a case, if there be amongst them a man of 
integrity, and possessing sufficient power for the purpose, he will do well to 
take from these people the power of conferring honors, and concentrate it in 
the hands of a small number of upright men, or even in the hands of one 
man ? — Evodius. Undoubtedly. — Augustine. Yet, since these laws appear 
very much opposed to each other, the one granting the people the right of 
conferring honors, the other depriving them of that right ; since, moreover, 
they cannot both be in force at once, are we to affirm that one of these laws is 
unjust, or that it should not have been enacted? — Evodius. By no means."* 

The whole question is here comprised in a few words : Can monarchy, aris- 
tocracy, and democracy, be one and all legitimate and proper ? Yes. By what 
considerations are we to be guided in our decision as to which of these forms 
is legitimate and proper in any given case ? By the consideration of existing 
rights, and of the condition of the people to whom such form is to be applied. 
Can a form once good become bad ? Certainly it may ; for all human things 
are subject to change. These reflections, as solid as they are simple, will pre- 
vent all excessive enthusiasm in favor of any particular form of government. 
This is not a mere question of theory, but one of prudence also. Now, pru- 
dence does not decide before having attentively considered and weighed all cir- 
cumstances. But there is one predominant idea in this doctrine of St. Augus- 
tine : this idea I have already indicated, viz. that great virtue and disinterest- 
edness are required under a free government. Those who are laboring to 
establish political liberty on the ruins of all religious belief would do well to 
reflect upon the words of the illustrious doctor. 

How would you have people exercise extensive rights, if you disqualify them 
by perverting their ideas and corrupting their morals ? You say that under 
representative forms of government reason and justice are secured by means 
of elections j and yet you labor to banish this reason and justice from the 
bosom of that society in which you talk of securing them. You sow the wind, 
and reap the whirlwind ; instead of models of wisdom and prudence, you offer 
the people scandalous scenes. Do not say that we are condemning the age, 
and that it progresses in spite of us : we reject nothing that is good; but per- 
versity and corruption we must reprobate. The age progresses — true; but 
neither you nor we know whither. Catholics know one thing — a thing which 
it needs not a prophet to tell, viz. that a good social condition cannot be formed 
out of bad men ; that immoral men are bad ; that where there is no religion, 
morality cannot take root. Firm in our faith, we shall leave you to try, if 
you choose, a thousand forms of government, to apply your palliatives to your 
own social patient, to impose upon him with deceitful words; his frequent 

* Aug. Quid ipsi homines et populi, ejusne generis rerum sunt, ut interire mutarive non pos- 
sint, aeternique omnino sint, V — Evod. Mutabile plane atque tempori obnoxium hoc genus e.sse 
quis dubitet ? — Aug. Ergo, si populus sit bene moderatus et gravis, communisque ufilitatis di- 
ligentissimus custos, in quo unusquisque niinoris rein privatam quam publicam pendat, nonne 
rectc lex fertur, qua huic ipsi populo liceat creare sibi magistratus, per quos sua res, id est pub- 
lica, administretur V — Evod. Recte prorsus. — Aug. Rorro, si jfaulatim depravatus idem populus 
rem privatam reipublicse prseferat, atque liabeat venale suti'ragium, corruplusque ab eis qui 
honores ainant, regimen in se flagitiosis conseeleratisque comrnittat, nonne item recte, si quis 
tunc extiterit vir bonus, qui plurimum possit, adimat huic populo potestatem dandi honores, et 
in paucorum bonorum vel etiam unius redigat arbitrium V — Evod. Et id recte. — Aug. Cum 
ergo duaj istse leges ita sibi videantur esse contrarise, ut una earum honorum dandorum populo 
tribuat potestatem, auferat altera, et cum ista secunda ita lata sit, ut nullo modo amba? in una 
civitate simul esse possint, num dicemus aliquam earum injustam esse et ferri minime debuisse ? 
— Evod. Nullo modo. 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



convulsions — his continued restlessness — are evidences of your incapacity ; and 
well is it for your patient that he still feels this anxiety : it is a sure sign that 
you have not entirely succeeded in securing his confidence. If ever you do 
secure it — if ever he fall asleep quietly in your arms — " all flesh will then have 
corrupted its way and it may also be feared lest God should resolve to sweep 
man from the face of the earth. 



CHAPTER LXIX. 

OP INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF CATHOLICITY. 

It has been abundantly proved in the course of this work, that the pseudo- 
Reformation has not in any way contributed to the perfection either of indi- 
viduals or of society ; from which we may naturally infer that the case is the 
same as regards the development of the intellect. I am unwilling, however, 
to let this truth stand merely as a corollary, and I believe it to be susceptible 
of a special elucidation. We may freely examine what advantage Protest- 
antism has conferred upon the various branches of human learning, without any 
fear of the result as regards Catholicity. When we are to examine objects 
naturally embracing a great many different relations, it is not enough merely 
to pronounce certain conspicuous names, or to cite with emphasis one or two 
facts. This is not the way to place a question in its proper light; and to treat 
it adequately, much more is required. A discussion, either confined within 
limits too narrow to admit of its full development, or allowed an indefinite 
range, carries with it, in the eyes of an observer of only slight penetration, an 
air of universality, elevation, and boldness, whilst in reality it is all uncertainty 
and vagueness, and is liable to be involved in endless contradictions. 

To investigate this question satisfactorily, we must, it seems to me, grasp 
the Catholic and Protestant principles respectively, subject them to a most 
rigid scrutiny, and seize upon every point that appears favorable or inimical 
to the development of the human mind. Further, we should survey, in its 
widest range, the history of the intellect; pausing here and there at the epochs 
where the influence of the principle whose tendencies and effects we are study- 
ing has been most effectively exerted ; then, rejecting anomalous exceptions, 
as proving nothing either one way or the other, and facts too insignificant and 
isolated to affect in any way the course of events, the mind, sufficiently elevated, 
and observing attentively, and with a sincere desire to know the truth, will be 
enabled to discover how far its philosophical deductions are in accordance with 
facts; and thus will it complete the solution of the problem. 

One of the fundamental principles of Catholicity, one of its distinctive 
characteristics, is the submission of the intellect to authority in matters of 
faith. This is the point against which the attacks of Protestants have ever 
been and still are directed : and this is quite natural, seeing that Protestants 
profess resistance to authority as a fundamental and constituent principle. 
From this fatal source flow all their other errors. If there be in Catholicity 
any thing capable of arresting the march of the mind or of lowering its flight, 
it must unquestionably be the principle of submission to authority. With this 
principle must rest all the blame in this respect, if indeed the Catholic religion 
be chargeable with any. 

Submission of the intellect to authority. These words, it cannot be denied, 
do, unless we have seized upon their true meaning, and ascertained the precise 
objects to which this submission is applicable, at first sight, convey an idea of 
antagonism to intellectual development. If you cherish an ardent affection for 
the dignity of our nature ; if you are an enthusiastic advocate of scientific 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



393 



progress, and behold with delight the brilliant efforts of a bold, vigorous, and 
accomplished genius ; you will discover something repulsive in a principle 
which appears to invoke slavery, since it checks the flight of the mind, clips the 
wings of the intellect, and casts it into the dust. But if you examine this 
principle in its essence, apply it to the various branches of learning, and observe 
what are the points of contact which it offers with the methods adopted for 
the cultivation of the mind, will you discover any foundation for these suspi- 
cions and apprehensions ? What truth will you find in the reproaches of which 
Catholicity has been made the object ? How vain and puerile will appear all 
the declamation published on this subject ! 

We will now enter fully into the examination of this difficulty ; we will take 
the Catholic principle, and analyze it with the eye of impartial philosophy. 
With this principle before us, we will survey the whole field of science, and 
consult the testimony of the greatest men. If we find that it has ever been 
opposed to the genuine development of any one branch of learning • if, on visit- 
ing the tombs where repose the most illustrious, they tell us that the principle 
of submission to authority chained down their intellects, obscured their imagi- 
nations, and withered their hearts, — we will then acknowledge that Protestants 
are right in the reproaches which they are constantly directing against the 
Catholic religion on this subject. God, man, society, nature, the entire crea- 
tion — such are the objects on which our minds can be occupied; beyond the 
sphere of these objects we cannot reach, for they embrace infinity — there is 
nothing beyond them. Well, then, the Catholic principle opposes no obstacle 
to the mind's progress. Whether as regards God or man, society or nature, it 
imposes no shackles, places no obstacle in the way of the human mind ; instead 
of checking this progress, it rather serves as a lofty beacon, which, far from 
interfering with the mariner's liberty, guides him in safety amid the obscurity 
of night. 

How does the Catholic principle oppose the freedom of the human mind in 
anything relating to the Divinity ? Protestants surely will not tell us that 
there is anything at all wrong in the idea which the Catholic religion gives of 
God. Agreeing with us on the idea of a being eternal, immutable, infinite, 
the Creator of heaven and earth, just, holy, full of goodness, a rewarder of the 
good, and a punisher of the wicked, they admit this to be the only reasonable 
idea of God that can be presented to the mind of man. To this idea the 
Catholic religion unites an incomprehensible, profound, and ineffable mystery, 
veiled from the sight of weak mortals, — the august mystery of the Trinity ; but 
on this point Protestants cannot reproach us, unless they are prepared to avow 
themselves Socinians. The Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Anglicans, and many 
other sects, condemn, as well as we do, those who deny this august mystery. 
We may remark here, that Calvin had Michael Servetus burned at Geneva for 
his heretical doctrines on the Trinity. I am well aware of the ravages that 
Socinianism has made among the separated Churches, where the spirit and the 
right of private judgment in ^matters of faith have converted Christians into 
unbelieving philosophers ; but, notwithstanding this, the mystery of the Trinity 
was long respected by the leading Protestant sects, and is so yet, externally at 
least, by the greater part of them. 

In any case, I cannot see how this mystery shackles human reason in its 
contemplation of the Divinity. Does it prevent it from going forth into immen- 
sity ? What limit does it fix to the infinite ocean of light and being implied 
in the word God ? Does it in the least obscure this splendor ? When the 
mind of man, soaring above the regions of creation, and detaching itself from 
the body that would bear it down, abandons itself to the delights of sublime 
meditation on the infinite Being, Creator of heaven and earth, does this august 
mystery stop him in his heavenward flight ? Ask the innumerable volumes 

50 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



written on the Divinity, eloquent and irrefragable testimonies of liberty enjoyed 
by the human mind wherever Catholicity prevails. The doctrines of Catho- 
licity relative to the Divinity may be considered under two aspects ; either as 
having reference to mysteries above our comprehension, or as touching what is 
within the reach of reason. As regards mysteries, their abode is in a region 
so sublime, they appertain to an order of things so superior to any created 
thought, that the mind, even after the most extensive, most profound, and, at 
the same time, most free investigations, is unable, without the aid of revelation, 
to form even the most remote idea of these ineffable wonders. How can things 
that never meet, which are of a totally distinct order, and which are an immense 
distance apart, interfere with each other ? The intellect can fix upon one of 
them by means of meditation, can lose itself in contemplating it, without even 
thinking of the other. Can the moon's orbit come into contact with the 
remotest of the fixed stars ? 

Do you fear that the revelation of a mystery may limit the sphere of your 
reason's operations ? Are you apprehensive lest, in wandering through immen- 
sity, you may be smothered in the narrowness of your reason ? Was space 
wanted for the genius of Descartes, of Gassendi, of Mallebranche ? Did these 
men complain that their intellects were limited, imprisoned ? Why, indeed, 
should they complain (I speak not of them only, but of all the great minds of 
modern times who have treated of the Divinity), when they cannot but own 
that they are indebted to Catholicity for the most splendid and sublime ideas 
that enrich their writings ? The philosophers of antiquity, in their treatises 
on the Divinity, are at an immense distance below the least eminent of our 
metaphysical theologians. What would Plato himself be compared to Lewis 
of Granada, Louis de Leon, Fenelon, or Bossuet ? Before Christianity appeared 
upon earth, before the faith of the Chair of Peter had taken possession of the 
world, the primitive ideas on the Divinity having been effaced, the human mind 
wandered amongst a thousand errors, a thousand monstrous fancies ; feeling 
the necessity of a God, man substituted for the Supreme Being the creation of 
his own imagination. But ever since the ineffable splendor, descending from 
the bosom of the Father of light, has shone upon the whole earth, ideas of the 
Divinity have remained so fixed, clear, and simple, and at the same time so 
lofty and sublime, that human reason has obtained a wider range; the veil 
which concealed the origin of the universe has been withdrawn ; the world's 
destiny has been marked out, and man has received the key that explains the 
wonders which fill and surround him. Protestants have felt the force of this 
truth ; their aversion for every thing Cathplic was almost fanatical ; yet, gener- 
ally speaking, they may be said to have respected the idea of the Divinity. On 
this point, of all others, the spirit of innovation has been felt the least. How, 
indeed, could it be otherwise ? The God of the Catholics was too great to be 
replaced by any other. Newton and Leibnitz, embracing heaven and earth in 
their speculations, could say nothing new of the Author of so many wonders, 
nothing but what had already been taught by the Catholic religion. 

Well had it been for Protestants if, whilst in the midst of their wanderings 
they preserved this precious treasure, they had faithfully followed the example 
of their predecessors, and had rejected that monstrous philosophy which 
threatens us with the revival of all errors, ancient and modern, beginning with 
the substitution of a monstrous pantheism for the sublime Deity of Chris- 
tianity. Let those Protestants who are friends of truth, jealous of the honor 
of their communion, devoted to their country's welfare, and interested in the 
future prospects of mankind, be warned in time. If pantheism should prevail, 
it will not be the spiritualist but the naturalist philosophers who will triumph. 
The German philosophers may in vain seek refuge in abstraction and enigmas, 
in vain condemn the sensualist philosophy of the last century ; a God con- 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



395 



founded with nature is not God, a God identified with every thing is nothing ; 
pantheism is a deification of the universe, that is, a denial of God. 

What sorrowful reflections suggest themselves to us when we consider the 
direction now taken by the minds of men in different parts of Europe, and more 
especially in Germany ! Catholics long since told them they would begin with 
resistance to authority by denying a dogma, but would end by a denial of all, 
and fall into atheism ; and the course of ideas during the last three centuries 
has fully confirmed the truth of the prediction. Strange, that German philo- 
sophy should aim at producing a reaction against the materialist school, and 
with all its spiritualism end in pantheism ! Providence, it would seem, has 
ordained that the soil which has produced so many errors should be barren of 
truth. Out of the Church all is unsteadiness and confusion ; materialism end- 
ing in atheism, wild idealism and fantastic spiritualism resulting in pantheism ! 
Verily, God still abhors pride, and repeats the terrible chastisement of the con- 
fusion of tongues. Catholicity triumphs the while ; but mourns in the midst 
of her triumphs. I do not see either how it can be that Catholicity impedes 
the operation of the intellect as regards the study of man. What does the 
Church require of us on this point ? What does she teach on the subject ? 
How far extends the circle embracing the doctrines we are forbidden to call in 
question ? 

Philosophers are divided into two schools, the materialists and the spir- 
itualists. The former assert that the human soul is only a portion of matter, 
which, by a certain modification, produces in us what we call thought and will ; 
the latter maintains that the energy accompanying thought and will is incom- 
patible with the inertness of matter ; that what is divisible, composed of divers 
parts, and consequently of divers entities, could not harmonize with the simple 
unity essential to a being that thinks, wills, reasons, with itself upon every 
thing, and possesses the profound consciousness of individuality. For these 
reasons they assert that the contrary opinion is false and absurd ) and they 
ground their opinion upon a variety of considerations. The Catholic Church 
intervenes in the dispute, and says : " The soul of man is not corporeal, it is a 
spirit ; you cannot be both a Catholic and a materialist." But ask the Catholic 
Church by what systems you are to explain the ideas, the sensations, the acts 
of the will, and human feelings, — and she will tell you that on these matters 
you are perfectly free to hold what you consider most in accordance with rea- 
son ; that faith does not descend to particular questions appertaining to the 
affairs of this world, which God himself delivered to the consideration of men. 
Before the light of the Gospel shone upon the world, the schools of philosophy 
were in the most profound ignorance on the subject of our origin and our des- 
tiny ; none of the philosophers could explain the profound contradictions that 
are found in man • none of them succeeded in pointing out the cause of that 
strange mixture of greatness and littleness, of goodness and malice, of knowl- 
edge and ignorance, of excellence and baseness. But religion came forth, and 
said : " Man is the work of God ; his destiny is to be for evermore united with 
God ; for him the earth is a place of exile only ; man is no longer what he was 
when he came forth from the hands of his Creator; the whole human race is 
subjected to the consequences of a great fall." Now I would defy all philo- 
sophers, ancient and modern, to show wherein the obligation of believing these 
things militates in the slightest degree against the progress of true philosophy. 

So far, indeed, are the doctrines of Catholicity from checking philosophical 
progress, that they are, on the contrary, a most fruitful source of this progress 
in every respect. If we wish to make progress in any of the sciences, it is no 
slight advantage for the intellect to have a safe and firm axis around which it 
may revolve ; it is a fortunate thing to be enabled to avoid at the very outset 
in the intellectual race, a multitude of questions which would entangle us in 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



inextricable labyrinths, or from which we could not escape without falling into 
most lamentable absurdities ; in a word, when we approach the investigation 
of these questions, we ought to consider ourselves happy in finding them 
resolved beforehand in their most important points, and in knowing where the 
truth lies, and where the danger of falling into error. The philosopher's posi- 
tion is then that of a man who, sure of the existence of a mine in a certain 
spot, does not waste his time in searching after it, but, knowing his ground, 
all his researches and labors are profitable from the first. This is the cause of 
the vast advantage which in these matters modern philosophers possess over 
those of antiquity : the ancients had to grope in the dark ; the moderns, pre- 
ceded by brilliant lights, advance with a firm and sure step, and march straight 
to their destination. They may boast incessantly that they set aside revelation, 
that they hold it in disdain, perhaps that they even openly attack it. Even in 
this case religion enlightens them, and often guides their steps j for there are 
a thousand splendid ideas for which they are indebted to religion, and which 
they cannot erase from their minds ; ideas which they have found in books, 
learned in catechisms, and imbibed with their milk ; ideas which they hear 
uttered by every one around them, which are spread everywhere, and which 
impregnate with their vivifying and beneficent influence the atmosphere they 
breathe. In repudiating religion, these same moderns are carrying ingratitude 
to great lengths ; for at the very moment they insult her, they are profiting by 
her favors. 

This is not the place to enter into details on this matter, or numerous proofs 
might easily be adduced in support of the foregoing observations ; a comparison 
between the first works of modern philosophy that came to hand and the works 
of the ancients would be decisive ; but such a labor would still be incomplete 
for those who are not versed in these matters ; and for those who are so, it 
would be superfluous. I leave the question with entire confidence to the per- 
spicacity and impartiality of my readers ; it will, I think, be acknowledged that 
whenever our modern philosophers have spoken of man with truth and dignity, 
their language has borne the impress of Christian ideas. Such is the influence 
of Catholicity upon those sciences which, confined to a purely speculative order, 
allow the genius of the philosopher the widest range and the greatest freedom 
possible ; but if, as regards those sciences, the influence of Catholicity, instead 
of checking the mind in its flight, only enlarges its range, increases its sub- 
limity, its daring, and at the same time its security, by preventing it from 
running astray, what shall we say of its influence on the study of ethics ? Has 
the whole body of philosophers together ever discovered any thing beyond what 
is contained in the Gospel ? What doctrine excels in purity, in sanctity, in 
sublimity that taught by the Catholic religion ? On this point we will do jus- 
tice to the philosophers, even to those most hostile to the Christian religion. 
They have attacked its doctrines, and smiled at the divinity of its origin ; but 
have always evinced a profound respect for its morality. I know not what 
secret influence has constrained them into an avowal that must certainly have 
cost them dear. " Yes," they invariably say, " it cannot be denied that the 
morality of Catholicity is excellent." 

There are certain doctrines of Catholicity which cannot be said to appertain 
directly either to Grod, to man, or to morality, in the sense generally given to 
this word. The Catholic religion is a revealed religion, of an order far supe- 
rior to any thing that the human mind is capable of conceiving. Its object is 
to guide us to a destiny that we could neither attain nor even imagine by our 
own strength, and it is based upon this principle, that human nature, corrupted 
by the fall, requires to be restored and purified ; evidently, therefore, it should 
contain certain doctrines explanatory of the mode in which this work of resto- 
ration and purification is to be effected, whether in a general or particular 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



397 



sense ; and at the same time pointing out the means which God has chosen to 
lead man to happiness. Such are the doctrines of the Incarnation, of Redemp- 
tion, of Grace, and of the Sacraments. 

These dogmas embrace a wide field ; the relations in which they stand to 
God and to man are very extensive ; the doctrines of the Catholic Church are, 
and always have been, unchangeable. Well then ! extensive as they are, they 
afford not a single point that can be said to have a tendency to embarrass the 
free action of the intellect in investigations of any kind. The cause of this fact 
is the same as that I have already indicated. Those who have attentively com- 
pared the sciences of philosophy and theology may have remarked that theology, 
in the sublime questions mentioned above, occupies a sphere so distinct and 
supereminent as scarcely to preserve a single point of contact with that in which 
philosophy moves. They are two vast and sublime orbits, occupying in the 
depths of space positions very distant from each other. Man sometimes tries 
to make them approximate, and would be glad if a ray of terrestrial light could 
penetrate into the region of incomprehensible mysteries ; but he scarcely knows 
how to begin this, and we hear him avow, with a profound sense of his own 
weakness, that he is speaking only conventionally and by analogy, merely with 
a view to make himself better understood. The Church allows such attempts, 
owing to the good intentions they evince ; sometimes she even prompts and 
encourages them, desiring, as far as possible, to accommodate what is incom- 
prehensible in her doctrines to the feeble capacities of men. 

After all their reasonings on the attributes of the Divinity and the relations 
of man to God, have philosophers discovered any thing incompatible with 
these doctrines of Catholicity ? Have revealed truths stood in their way as a 
stumbling-block to their investigations ? When Descartes, in the seventeenth 
century, effected a revolution in philosophy, a singular incident occurred that 
will throw a strong light on this subject. The Catholic doctrine respecting the 
august mystery of the Eucharist is known, and also in what the dogma of 
transubstantiation consists. Many theologians, the reader is also probably 
aware, in order to explain the supernatural phenomenon which takes place 
after the consummation of the miracle, had recourse to the doctrine of acci- 
dents, which they distinguished from the substance. Now the theory of Des- 
cartes, and of almost all other modern philosophers, was incompatible with this 
explanation, for they denied the existence of accidents distinct from the sub- 
stance. It consequently appeared at first sight that a difficulty would here 
arise for the Catholic doctrine, and that the Church would have to oppose this 
system of philosophy. And did it so happen ? Not at all. Upon a careful 
investigation of the matter, it was seen that the Catholic dogma belonged to a 
region infinitely above that uncertain one in which the philosophic doctrine 
was discovered, however closely they might have seemed to approximate. In 
vain theologians discussed the matter, indulged in mutual recriminations, drew 
from the new doctrine all sorts of inferences, in order to represent it as dan- 
gerous. The Church, always superior to the thoughts of men, kept aloof from 
these disputes, maintaining that grave, majestic, and impassive attitude so well 
becoming her to whom Jesus Christ confided the sacred deposit of His doctrine. 
Such is the liberty accorded by the Church to the genius of philosophers, that 
it is free in every sense. The Church has no need to be continually imposing 
restrictions and conditions ; the sacred doctrines of which she is the depository 
dwelling in so elevated a region that the mind of man can scarcely ever meet 
them, at least so long as his investigations do not wander from the track of 
true philosophy. 

But this human reason, at once so powerful and so feeble, sometimes be- 
comes puffed up with arrogance and pride, and in the name of liberty and in- 
dependence claims a right to blaspheme the Almighty, to deny man's free will, 

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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the immortality and spirituality of his soul, her sublime origin and her heavenly 
destiny. At such a time we avow, and we glory in the avowal, the Church 
does raise her voice, not to oppress or tyrannize over the human mind, but to 
defend the rights of the Supreme Being and the dignity of human nature ; 
then, indeed, we behold her opposing, with unyielding firmness, that senseless 
liberty which consists in the fatal right of uttering all sorts of extravagances. 
This liberty Catholics neither possess nor desire, knowing that in these matters, 
as in others, there is a sacred line of demarcation between liberty and licen- 
tiousness. Happy slavery, that keeps us from atheism, materialism, and from 
doubting whether our souls come from God, whether they tend towards Him, 
and whether there exists for unhappy mortals, after the sufferings that weigh 
upon them in this life, a life of eternal happiness purchased by the merits of a 
God-man ! As for the sciences which have society for their object, I think I 
need not vindicate the Catholic religion from the reproach of having in this 
respect oppressed the human mind. The long train of reflections in which I 
have set forth her doctrines and her influence, as regards the nature and extent 
of power, and the civil and political liberty of nations, proves to a demonstra- 
tion that the Catholic religion, without descending to the arena in which the 
passions of men strive and contend, teaches a doctrine most favorable to true 
civilization and to the rightly-understood liberties of the people. 

I will also touch briefly upon the relations of the Catholic principle with the 
study of the natural sciences. Assuredly it is not easy to see in what way 
this principle can be injurious to the progress of the human mind in this de- 
partment of knowledge. I have said, it is not easy ; I might have said impos- 
sible, and that for a very simple reason, founded upon a fact within the reach 
of every man ; viz. the extreme reserve which the Catholic religion evinces in 
every thing relating to purely natural science. One might suppose that God 
had designed, on this matter, to read us a severe lesson on our excessive curi- 
osity : you have only to read the Bible to be convinced of the truth of what I 
have advanced. I do not mean that nature is never noticed in the Bible ; that 
divine book presents her to us in her grandest, noblest, and most sublime as- 
pect ; as a living whole, in fact, together with all her relations and her sub- 
lime destiny, but without any kind of analysis or decomposition. In these 
sacred pages the painter's pencil and the poet's fancy will meet with magni- 
ficent models ; but the inquisitive philosopher will look in vain for the hints 
he is in quest of. The Holy Spirit did not aim at making naturalists, but 
virtuous men ; hence, in describing the creation, He represents it solely in a 
light the best adapted to excite in us feelings of admiration and gratitude to- 
wards the Author of so many wonders and benefits. Nature, as she appears in 
the sacred text, has not much to gratify the curiosity of the philosopher ; but 
then she delights and ennobles the imagination — she moves and penetrates the 
heart. 



CHAPTER LXX. 

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. 

From the rapid view we have taken of the several branches of learning in 
their relations to the authority of the Church, it is clear to a demonstration, 
that the alleged enslavement of the intellect amongst Catholics is nothing but 
a mere bugbear : in no respect does our faith either arrest or retard the progress 
of learning. Since, however, it not unfrequently happens that, in arguments 
apparently the most solid, a flaw is discovered when they are brought to the 
test of facts, it will be well to corroborate our assertion by historical testimony j 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



399 



fully assured as we are, that the result must be favorable to the cause of 
truth. We will begin at the beginning. 

M. Guizot maintains that the contest between the Church and the advocates 
of the freedom of thought originated in the middle ages. Noticing the eflforts 
of John Erigena, Roscelin, Abelard, and the alarm they excited in the Church, 
he observes : " This was the great event that occurred at the end of the eleventh, 
and at the beginning of the twelfth centuries, at a time when the Church was 
under theocratic and monastic influence. It was then that, for the first time, 
a serious struggle was commenced between the clergy and the freethinkers." 
(Hist. Generate de la Civilisation en Europe. Lecon 6.) The entire scope of 
M. G-uizot's work shows that, in his judgment, the best-founded reproach that 
could be cast upon the Catholic Church was, that she checked the freedom of 
thought. According to him, this is the point upon which the advantage of the 
Protestant system over Catholicity is the least controvertible. His object being 
the complete development of this idea, in treating of the religious revolution 
of the sixteenth century it was requisite for him to deposit it as a seed in his 
preliminary lectures ; as otherwise the fact of the Reformation would have ap- 
peared isolated, and shorn of its importance. Besides, it was necessary that the 
resistance of Protestants to the Catholic Church should have a meaning ; that 
it should carry with it the appearance of a noble and generous thought ; that 
it should be regarded as the proclamation of the freedom of the human mind. 
To attain this end, the Church, on the one hand, must be represented as assert- 
ing claims in the middle ages to which she had not previously pretended ; and, 
on the other, those writers who resisted these alleged pretensions of the Church 
must be held up as men of extraordinary penetration. 

Now, such is precisely the thread of M. Gruizot's discourse; and we hence 
infer his eflforts to prepare beforehand the triumph of his opinions. His plan, 
however, is ill-concerted ; for he appears to have overlooked the most palpable 
facts in the history of the Church ; and not even to have known what were the 
doctrines of the three champions, whose names he invokes with so much com- 
placency. That no one may accuse me of making inconsiderate assertions, I 
will here quote his words literally : " Thus every thing," says he, " seemed 
turning to the advantage of the Church, of her unity, and of her power. But 
whilst the Papacy was grasping at the government of the world, whilst the 
monasteries were undergoing a moral reformation, a few powerful but isolated 
individuals claimed for human reason the right of being something in man, the 
right to interfere in the formation of his opinions. Most of them refrained 
from attacking received opinions, or religious belief ; they merely said that 
reason had a right to prove them ; and that it was not enough that they were 
affirmed by authority. John Erigena, Roscelin, and Abelard were the inter- 
preters, through whom individual reason began to lay claim to her inheritance 
— the first authors of that movement of liberty, which was associated with the 
reform movement of Hildebrand and St. Bernard. If we seek the dominant 
feature of this movement, we shall find that it was not a change of opinion, a 
revolt against the system of public belief ; it was simply the right of reason- 
ing claimed for reason." {Hist. Gentrale de la Civilisation en Europe. 
Lecon 6.) 

We will pass over the author's singular parallel between the eflforts of John 
Erigena, Roscelin, and Abelard, and those of the great reformers, Hildebrand 
or St. Gregory VII., and St. Bernard. These latter sought to reform the 
Church by legitimate means, to render the clergy more venerable by making 
them more virtuous, and to win greater respect for authority by sanctifying 
the persons entrusted with its exercise : the others, according to M. G-uizot, 
resisted this authority in matters of faith ; that is, they aimed at its over- 
throw, and for this purpose laid the axe to the root ) the former were reformers, 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the latter devastators : and yet we are told that their efforts were directed to 
one and the same object, had one and the same tendency. Verily, the philo 
sophy of history were a sorry thing, if it could allow of such a confusion of 
ideas ! What progress can be made in this branch of knowledge, by men who 
have so strange a way of dealing with facts ? But, I repeat, let us take leave 
of these aberrations, and fix our attention specially on two points : the worth 
of these three writers, so much vaunted, and the idea we are told to entertain 
of their resistance to authority. Doubtless the names of John Erigena and 
Roscelin are already pronounced with respect by those persons who would fain 
be thought well versed in the philosophy of history, without having ever read 
history, and who are obliged to content themselves with those easy lessons that 
are learned in an hour, and studied in an evening. With persons of this de- 
scription, it is enough to have heard these names pronounced with emphasis, to 
have seen them coupled with epithets, such as powerful men, advocates of 
human reason, interpreters of individual reason, to make them fancy that learn- 
ing is no less indebted to Erigena and Roscelin than to Descartes or Bacon. 

Without bearing in mind the remarks I have already made on the pecu- 
liarity of M. G-uizot's position, it would not be easy to conjecture why he 
should seek to represent as new and extraordinary, what was, in fact, neither 
new nor uncommon ; how he could say that the Church first began the contest 
against liberty of thought, when she put down Erigena, Roscelin, and Abelard. 
He brings forward these three writers, as though their influence had been para- 
mount ; whereas they had no more influence than other sectarians, who abounded 
in preceding centuries. Who and what really was this John Erigena ? A 
writer but imperfectly versed in theological science ; but who, puffed up by the 
favor shown him by Charles the Bold, broached certain errors on the subject 
of the Eucharist, predestination and grace. In all that, I see only a man 
departing from the doctrine of the Church ; and in Nicholas the First attempt- 
ing to stop him in his career, I see only a Pope fulfilling his duty. What is 
there in all this either new or extraordinary ? Does not the whole history of 
the Church, from the time of the Apostles, exhibit an unbroken succession of 
similar facts ? 

I repeat, it is impossible to conceive for what purpose the name of Erigena 
is brought forward. His errors produced no result of importance ; and the age 
in which he lived cannot be considered as having exercised any great influence 
on the intellectual development of subsequent times. He lived in the ninth 
century. Now, this century had no share in the movement of those that fol- 
lowed j indeed, it is well known that the tenth century was the darkest period 
of ignorance during the middle ages ; and that the intellectual movement com- 
menced only at the close of the tenth, and at the opening of the eleventh 
century. Erigena and Roscelin are separated by two centuries. As for Ros- 
celin and Abelard, it is easier to understand why their names are cited. Every 
one knows the noise that Abelard made in the world by his doctrines, and 
perhaps still more by his adventures. Roscelin may also command attention 
by his errors, and especially as the master of Abelard. 

To give an idea of the spirit that guided these men, and of the opinion we 
are to form of their intentions, we must enter into some details touching their 
•lives and their doctrines. Roscelin was one of the most crafty men of his time. 
A subtle dialectician and warm partizan of the sect of the Nominalists, he sub- 
stituted his own opinions for the teaching of the Church ; and ended by falling 
into the gravest errors on the sacred mystery of the Trinity. History has 
recorded a fact, that proves incontestably the notorious dishonesty of the man — 
his want of probity and of modesty. At the time that Roscelin was propagating 
his errors, St. Anselm, who was afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, was 
living, but at that time abbot of Beck. Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



401 



who died some time before, had left behind him the highest reputation for virtue 
and sound doctrine. Roscelin thought that the authority of so high a name 
would give currency and consideration to his errors; and, resorting to the 
foulest calumny, he affirmed that his opinions were the same as those of Arch- 
bishop Lanfranc, and Anselm, abbot of Beck. To this calumny Lanfranc could 
not reply, as he was already in the tomb ; but the abbot of Beck vigorously 
repelled so unjust an imputation; and at the same time vindicated the reputa- 
tion of Lanfranc, who had been his master. The works of St. Anselm leave 
no doubt as to the nature of Roscelin' s errors. We find them recorded with 
the greatest precision. In fact, it were difficult to say why M. Gi-uizot has 
conferred so much importance upon this man, or why he should be adduced as 
one of the principal champions of the freedom of thought. There is nothing 
in Roscelin to distinguish him from other heretics. He is a man who employs 
artifices and subtleties, and falls into error ; but nothing is more common in the 
history of the Church ; and it certainly cannot be considered matter of aston- 
ishment. 

Abelard is more deserving of notice : his name has become so famous that no 
one is unacquainted with his sad adventures. A disciple of Roscelin, and as 
well skilled as his master in the dialectics of the age, endowed with great 
talents, and eager to parade them on the principal theatres of literature, Abe- 
lard earned a reputation never attained by the dialectician of Compiegne. His 
errors on points of very great importance produced much mischief in the Church, 
and drew upon himself many sorrows. But it is not true, as M. Guizot will 
have it, that his doctrines met with less reproof than his method ; neither is it 
true that he and his master Roscelin had no intention of effecting a radical 
change in matters of doctrine. Evidence of a most unexceptionable kind for- 
tunately places the matter beyond all doubt, and proves that it was not Ros- 
celin's method, but his error on the Trinity, for which he was condemned. Nor 
have we less certainty in the case of Abelard ; for the various errors taken from 
his works are preserved in the form of articles. 

We learn from St. Bernard, that on the Trinity, Abelard held the opinions 
of Arius — on the Incarnation, those of Nestorius — on grace, those of Pelagius. 
All this did not merely tend to a radical change of doctrine, but actually was 
one. I do not know that Abelard ever protested against the truth of these 
accusations ; and even if he had, we all know how to estimate such a protest. 
It is certain that, in the famous Assembly of Sens — convoked at the request 
of Abelard himself — he had not a word to say in reply to the sainted abbot of 
Clairvaux, who reproached him with his errors ; and laying before him the very 
words of his propositions, extracted from his writings, urged him either to 
defend or abjure them. Abelard, confronted with so formidable an adversary, 
was so embarrassed that he could only say, in reply, that he appealed to Rome. 
The Council of Sens, out of respect for the Holy See, abstained from condemn- 
ing the person of the innovator, but did not fail te condemn his errors ; and 
this condemnation was approved by the Sovereign Pontiff, and extended to his 
person also. Now, from the articles containing the errors of Abelard, it does 
not appear that his dominant idea was to proclaim the liberty of thought. He 
has, it is true, an overweening confidence in his own subtleties ; but, beyond 
this, his only fault is an erroneous and dogmatizing spirit on points of the 
greatest importance; a fault which he had in common with all the heretics who 
preceded him. 

All this M. Guizot ought to have known ; how he can have overlooked it I 
cannot imagine, nor why he attaches to these authors an importance which they 
really do not deserve. Perhaps he was anxious to furnish Protestants with some 
illustrious predecessors, when he laid such stress on the names of Roscelin and 
Abelard. These two, after all, were not deficient in ability or in erudition, 
51 2 I 2 



402 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



and they lived precisely during the early period of the intellectual movement. 
Probably M. Guizot thought, that to bring these two innovators upon the scene 
would answer his purpose extremely well, as showing that, from the very dawn 
of intellectual development, men of the greatest fame had raised their voices in 
favor of freedom of thought. After all, had M. Guizot succeeded in proving 
that John Erigena, Roscelin, and Abelard aimed at nothing more than the 
assertion of the right of private examination in matters of faith, it would not 
follow that these innovators had not sought to effect a radical change in mat- 
ters of doctrine. In fact, what can be more radical as regards matters of faith 
than that which strikes at authority, the root of all certainty ? Neither would 
it follow, that in condemning the errors of these men the Church had taken 
alarm merely at their method; for if this method was to consist in withdrawing 
the intellect from the yoke of authority, even in matters of faith, it was itself a 
very grievous error, combated at all times by the Catholic Church, which never 
would consent to have her authority called in question on points of faith. 

And yet, if these innovators had entered into the contest chiefly for the pur- 
pose of contending against authority in matters of faith, ML Guizot would have 
had some reason to notice their proceedings as constituting a new era ; but, 
strange to say, their propositions do not appear to have been drawn up with a 
view to advocate the independence of thought, nor against authority in matters 
of faith ; it was not for such an attempt, but for other errors, that the Church 
condemned them. Where, then, are the accuracy and historical truth which 
we should expect from such a man as M. Guizot ? How could he venture, in 
addressing a numerous audience, thus to substitute his own thoughts for facts ? 
The fact is, he well knew that these were matters generally treated very super- 
ficially; that to gain the sympathy of superficial men it would suffice to speak 
in pompous terms of the liberty of thought, to pronounce certain names pro- 
bably heard by many for the first time, such as Erigena and Koscelin, and 
especially to mention the unfortunate lover of Heloi'se. 

M. Guizot, unable to conceal from himself that his observations upon this 
period were somewhat feeble, tries to apply a remedy by inserting a passage 
from the Introduction to the Theology of Abelard, which, in my opinion, is very 
far from answering the purpose of the publicist. His object, in fact, is to show 
that from that very period a vigorous spirit of resistance to the authority of the 
«Church in matters of faith had sprung up, and that the human mind was even 
then longing to burst asunder the fetters in which it had been held. He would 
iiave us believe that Abelard, yielding to the importunities of his own disciples, 
had the courge to throw off the yoke of authority ; and that his writings were, 
to a certain extent, the expression of a necessity long felt, of an idea with 
which many minds had long been agitated. The following is the passage 
referred to : "If we seek the dominant feature of this movement, we shall 
find that it was not a change of opinion, a revolt against the system of public 
belief; it was simply the right of reasoning claimed for reason." 

We have already seen how utterly devoid of truth is this assertion of the 
publicist. The very attack upon authority was itself a radical change in opin- 
ions, and a revolution in received doctrines; for the authority of .the Church 
was in itself a dogma, and formed the basis of all religious belief, as experience 
has satisfactorily shown, since the appearance of Protestantism at the commence- 
ment of the sixteenth century. But let us allow the historian to proceed : 
" The disciples of Abelard, as he himself tells us in his Introduction to Theo- 
logy, required of him philosophical arguments, and such as would satisfy reason, 
requesting him to teach them not merely to repeat his instructions, but to un- 
derstand them also ; for no one can believe what he does not understand, and 
it is ridiculous to preach to others things that neither the teacher nor his pupils 
understand. 'What object can the study of philosophy have but that of 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



403 



leading the mind to the contemplation of God, to whom all things are to be 
referred ? Why are the faithful allowed to read works treating of worldly 
affairs and the books of the Gentiles, except to prepare them to understand the 
sacred Scriptures, and to furnish them with the skill necessary for their de- 
fence? For this purpose alone we should avail ourselves of all our 

reasoning powers, lest, on questions so difficult and complicated as those that 
form the object of Christian faith, the subtilty of our opponents should too 
readily injure the purity of our faith.' " 

It cannot be denied, that in Abelard' s time a lively curiosity aroused men's 
minds to employ all their powers to be able to give a reason for what they be- 
lieved j but it is not true that the Church threw any obstacle in the way of 
this movement, considering it as a scientific method, and so long as it did not 
overstep legitimate bounds, and attack or undermine the articles of faith. It 
is impossible to take a more unfavorable view of the Church than M. Guizot 
has here taken of her; nor could any one more completely overlook, I will 
even say distort, facts. 

" The importance of this first attempt at liberty," says he, " of this revival 
of the spirit of inquiry, was soon felt. The Church, though engaged in effect- 
ing her own reform, took the alarm nevertheless, and at once declared war 
against the reformers, whose new methods menaced her with more evils than 
their doctrines." 

Thus is the Church represented as conspiring against the progress of thought, 
repressing with a strong arm the first attempts of the mind to advance in the 
path of science, and laying aside questions of doctrine to contend against 
methods j and all this, we are told, as if it were something new and wonderful. 
" For," says M. Guizot, " this was the great event which occurred at the end 
of the eleventh and beginning of the twelfth centuries, at a time when the 
Church was under theocratic and monastic influence. It was now that, for the 
first time, a serious struggle commenced between the clergy and the freethinkers. 
The quarrels of Abelard and St. Bernard, the Councils of Soissons and Sens, 
in which Abelard was condemned, merely give expression to this event, which 
has occupied so large a space in the history of modern civilization." 

Still the same confusion of ideas. I have said already, and must repeat here 
that the Church has condemned no method j it was not a method, but error, that 
the Church condemned, unless by a method be meant an assault upon the 
articles of faith, under pretence of breaking the fetters of authority, which is 
not merely a method, but an error of the very highest import. In reproving 
a pernicious doctrine, subversive of all faith, and denying the infallibility of 
the See of St. Peter in matters of doctrine, the Church did not put forth any 
new pretensions ; her conduct has always been the same ever since the time of 
the Apostles, and is the same still. The moment a doctrine is propagated that 
appears in the least degree dangerous, the Church examines it, compares it with 
the sacred deposit of truth confided to her ; if the doctrine is not inconsistent 
with divine truth, she allows it free circulation, for she is not ignorant that 
God has given up the world to the controversies of men; but if it is opposed to 
the faith, its condemnation is irremissible, without concern or regret. Were 
the Church to act otherwise, she would contradict herself, and cease to be what 
she is, the jealous depository of divine truth. If she allowed her infallible 
authority to be questioned, that moment she would forget one of her most 
sacred obligations, and would lose all claim on our belief ; for, in betraying an 
indifference for truth, she would prove herself to be no longer a religion de- 
scended from heaven, but a mere delusion. 

Precisely at the time of which M. Guizot speaks, we observe a fact which 
proves that the Church allows free scope to the exercise of thought. The high 
reputation which St. Anselm sustained during his whole career, and the great 



404 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



esteem in which he was held by the Sovereign Pontiffs of his time, are well 
known j yet St. Anselm philosophised with great freedom. In the introduction 
to his Monologue, he tells us that some persons entreated him to explain things 
by reason alone, without the aid of the sacred Scriptures. The Saint was not 
afraid to comply with their request, and he accordingly wrote the little work 
we have just named. In other parts of his works, too, St. Anselm adopts the 
same method. Very few persons concern themselves now-a-days about ancient 
writers, and doubtless very few have read the works of the holy Doctor of 
whom we are speaking. They display, however, such perspicuity of thought, 
such solid reasoning, and above all such a discreet and temperate judgment, 
that we are surprised to find the human mind, at the very commencement of 
the intellectual movement, attaining to so high an elevation. In him we find 
the greatest freedom of thought combined with the respect due to the authority 
of the Church ; and far from impairing the vigor of his ideas, this respect 
augments their force and perspicuity. From his works we learn that Abelard 
was not the only one who taught, not merely to repeat his lectures, but also to 
understand them; for St. Anselm, some years previous, followed the same 
method with a clearness and solidity far beyond what could be expected at that 
time. We there discover, also, that in the bosom of the Catholic Church men 
carried the operations of reason to the greatest possible extent, though always 
within the bounds "prescribed by its own weakness, and with reverential regard 
to the sacred veil that shrouds august mysteries. 

The works of St. Anselm prove that Abelard was not exactly the man to 
teach the world that the end of philosophical studies is to lead the mind to the 
contemplation of God, to whom all things should be referred ; and that we 
should avail ourselves of all our reasoning powers, lest on questions so difficult 
and complicated as those that form the object of Christian faith, the subtilties 
of our opponents should too readily injure the purity of our faith. But from 
the Saint's profound submission to the authority of the Church, from the can- 
dor and ingenuousness with which he acknowledges the limits of the human 
mind, we see that he was persuaded that it is not impossible to believe what we 
do not comprehend ; and, in fact, there is a wide difference between the convic- 
tion that a thing exists, and a clear knowledge of the nature of the thing in 
the existence of which we believe. 



CHAPTER LXXL 

RELIGION AND THE HUMAN MIND IN EUROPE. 

As we are to examine what was, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the 
conduct of the Church in reference to innovators, we will avail ourselves of the 
excellent opportunity afforded by this epoch for noticing the progress of the 
human mind. It has been said that in Europe intellectual development was 
exclusively theological. This is true, and necessarily so; all the faculties of 
man receive their development according to the circumstances that surround 
him ; and as his health, his temperament, his strength, his color even, and his 
stature depend upon climate, food, mode of life, and other circumstances affect- 
ing him, so in like manner his moral and intellectual faculties bear the stamp 
of the principles which predominate in the family and society of which he 
forms a constituent part. Now, in Europe, religion was the predominating 
element in every thing religion made herself heard and felt ; nowhere was 
there a principle of life or action discoverable unconnected with religion. It 
was quite natural, therefore, that in Europe all the faculties of man should 
have their development in a religious sense. A little attention will show us 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



405 



that this was the case not with the intellect only, but likewise with the heart, 
with the passions even, and with the whole moral man ; just as, in whatever 
direction we go in Europe, we meet at every step with some monument of reli- 
gion ; so whatever faculty we examine in the individual European, we find 
upon it the impress of religion. 

And the case was the same with families and society as with individuals ; 
religion was equally predominant in both. Wherever man has progressed 
towards a state of perfection, we observe a similar phenomenon ; and it is an 
invariable fact in the history of the human race, that no society ever entered 
on the road to civilization, save under the direction and impulse of religious 
principles. True or false, rational or absurd, wherever man is on the road to 
improvement, these principles are found. Some nations, indeed, may well 
excite our pity at the monstrous superstitions into which they have fallen ; but 
we still must acknowledge, that, under these very superstitions, lay concealed 
germs of good that did not fail to produce considerable benefits. The Egyp- 
tians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans were all extremely superstitious; yet 
the progress they made in civilization and intellectual culture was such, that 
their monuments and memorials strike us even yet with admiration. It is easy 
to smile at an extravagant observance or a senseless dogma ; but we should 
remember that the growth and preservation of certain moral principles cannot 
be otherwise secured than under the protecting shade of religious belief. Now, 
these principles are most indispensably necessary to prevent individuals from 
being monstrously changed, and to maintain the social and family ties unbroken. 
Much has been said against the immorality tolerated, permitted, and sometimes 
even taught by certain forms of religion j and certainly nothing is more lament- 
able than to behold man thus led astray by that which ought to be his best 
guide. Let us, however, look for a reality beneath these shadows, which 
appear at first so gloomy, and we shall soon discover some rays of light that 
may lead us to regard false religions, not indeed with indulgence, but with less 
horror than those infamous systems which make matter self-existent, -and 
pleasure the only divinity. 

To preserve the idea of moral good and evil, an idea without meaning except 
in the supposition that there exists a divine power, is itself an inestimable 
advantage. Now this advantage adheres inseparably to every form of religion, 
even to those that make the most absurd and most criminal applications of 
the idea of good and evil. Doubtless, the people of antiquity, and those of 
our own time who have not received the light of Christianity, have gone most 
deplorably astray; but, in the midst of their very wanderings, there always 
remains a certain degree of light ; and this light, however dimly it shines, 
however faint and feeble its rays, is incomparably better than the thick dark- 
ness of atheism. Between the nations of antiquity and those of Europe there 
is this very remarkable difference, that the former passed from a state of infancy 
to a state of civilization; while the latter advanced to this, in passing from that 
undefinable state which, in Europe, was the result of the invasion of the bar- 
barians, of the confused mixture of a young with a decrepit society, of rude 
and ferocious nations with others that were civilized, cultivated, or rather 
effeminate. Hence, amongst the ancients the imagination was developed before 
the intellect, whilst amongst Europeans the intellect came before the imagina- 
tion. With the former, poetry came first ; with the latter, what is termed dia- 
lectics and metaphysics. 

What is the reason of so striking a difference ? When a people are yet in 
their infancy, either an infancy properly so called, or having lived long in 
ignorance, in a state similar to that of an infant people, we find them rich in 
sensations, but very poor in ideas. Nature, with her majesty, her wonders, 
and her mysteries, affects such a people the most; their language is grand, 



406 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



picturesque, and highly poetical ; their passions are not refined, but, on the 
other hand, they are very energetic and violent. Now an intellect that inge- 
nuously seeks the light, loves truth in its purity and simplicity, confesses and 
embraces it readily, lending itself neither to subtilties, artifices, nor disputes. 
The least thing that makes a vivid impression upon the senses or the imagina- 
tion of such a people fills them with surprise and wonder ; you cannot inspire 
them with enthusiasm without setting before them something heroic and sublime. 

On the first glance at the state of the people of Europe in the middle ages, 
we perceive in them a certain resemblance to an infant people, but, at the same 
time, a very striking difference on several points. Their passions are very 
strong, they are pleased beyond every thing with the wonderful and the extra- 
ordinary, and, for want of realities, their imagination conjures up gigantic 
phantoms. The profession of arms is their favorite occupation; they rush 
eagerly into the most perilous adventures, and meet them with incredible 
courage. All this indicates a development of the feelings of sensibility and 
imagination, inasmuch as they produce intrepidity and valor; but, strange to 
say, together with these dispositions, we find a singular taste for things the 
most purely intellectual ; with the most lively, ardent, and picturesque reality, 
we find associated a taste for the coldest and barest abstractions. A knight, 
with the cross on his shoulder, gorgeously clad, covered with trophies, beaming 
with glory won in a hundred combats ; a subtile dialectician, disputing on the 
system of the Nominalists, and urging his subtilely devised abstractions till he 
becomes unintelligible; — these are certainly two characters very dissimilar, 
and yet they exist together in the same society ; both have their prestige, 
receive the greatest homage, and are followed by enthusiastic admirers. Even 
when we have taken into account the singular position of the European nations 
at that period, it is not easy to assign a cause for this anomaly. We can easily 
understand how the people of Europe, emerging, for the most part, from the 
forests of the North, and engaged for a long time either in intestine wars or in 
conflicts with vanquished tribes, should have preserved, together with their 
warlike habits, a strong and lively imagination and violent passions ; but it is 
not so easy to account for their taste for an order of ideas purely metaphysical 
and dialectical. When, however, we come to look deeply into the matter, we 
discover that this apparent anomaly had its origin in the very nature of things. 
How is it that a people in their infancy have so much imagination and sensi- 
bility ? Because the objects by which these faculties are naturally excited 
abound around them; because individuals, being continually exposed to the 
influence of external things, these objects operate upon them more forcibly. 
Man first feels and imagines ; later he understands and reflects : this is the 
natural order in which his faculties begin to operate. Hence, with every peo- 
ple the development of the imagination and of the passions precedes that of the 
intellect; the passions and the imagination finding their object and aliment 
before the intellect. This accounts, also, for the fact that the poetical always 
precedes the philosophical era. From this it follows, that nations in their 
infancy think little, as they want ideas ; and this is the chief distinctive mark 
between them and the people of Europe at the period we are speaking of. In 
fact, ideas at that time abounded in Europe ; and hence the purely intellectual 
was held in such repute even amidst the most profound ignorance. Hence, 
also, the intellect strove to shine even before its time appeared to have arrived. 
Sound ideas respecting God, respecting man and society, were already every- 
where disseminated, thanks to the incessant teaching of Christianity; and as 
there still remained numerous traces of the wisdom of antiquity, both Christian 
and Pagan, the consequence was, that every man possessed of a little learning 
had, in fact, a great fund of ideas. 

It is clear, however, that notwithstanding these advantages, the minds of 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



407 



men could not, amidst the chaos of erudition and philosophy that then pre- 
sented itself, escape the confusion naturally resulting from the wide-spread 
ignorance, occasioned by a long succession of revolutions. They could not 
possess sufficient discrimination and judgment to pursue all at once, and with 
success, the study of the Bible, of the writings of the holy Fathers, of the 
Civil and canon law, of the works of Aristotle, and of the Arabian commen- 
taries. Yet these were all studied at the same time ; on all these, disputes 
were zealously maintained j and the errors and extravagances which in such 
a state of things were inevitable were accompanied by the presumption that 
is invariably inherent in ignorance. To succeed in explaining certain passages 
of the Bible, of the Fathers, of the codes, and of the works of philosophers, 
great preparatory labors were necessary, as the experience of subsequent ages 
has proved. It was necessary to study languages, to examine archives and 
monuments, to collect together from all parts an immense mass of materials j 
then, to reduce these to order, to compare them together, and to discriminate 
between them ; in a word, it was necessary to possess a rich fund of learning, 
enlightened by the torch of criticism. Now all this was then wanting, and 
could only be attained in the course of ages. The consequence was inevitable, 
considering the mania that existed for explaining every thing. If a difficulty 
arose, and the facts and knowledge requisite for its solution were wauting, they 
adopted a roundabout way J instead of seeking the support derivable from facts, 
the disputants took their stand upon an idea ; substituting some subtle abstrac- 
tion for solid reasoning ; where they found it impossible to form a body of 
sound doctrine, they threw together a confused mass of ideas and words. Who 
could repress a smile, or not feel pity for Abelard, for instance, promising his 
disciples to explain to them the prophet Ezechiel, with very little time for pre- 
paration, and actually fulfilling his promise ? I would ask the reader whether, 
in the middle of the thirteenth century, an explanation of Ezechiel, given with 
only a slight preparation, could have been successsful or interesting ? 

The study of dialectics and metaphysics was embraced with so much ardor, 
that in a short time these branches of knowledge superseded all others. The 
consequences were prejudicial to the minds of men ; their attention being wholly 
engrossed by this object of their choice, the pursuit of more solid learning was 
regarded with indifference — history was neglected, literature unnoticed, in a 
word, the mind was only half developed. Every thing appertaining to the 
imagination and the feelings was sacrificed to the cultivation of the intellect ; 
not, indeed, in its most useful operations, — the formation of a clear and perfect 
perception, of a mature judgment, of a habit of sound and accurate reasoning, 
— but in those which are astute, subtle, and extravagant. 

Those who would reproach the Church for her conduct at that period in re- 
ference to innovators have a very imperfect understanding of the actual condi- 
tion of Europe as regards science and religion. We have already seen that the 
intellectual development was religious ; consequently, even when it deviated 
from the right path, it still retained this character, and the oddest subtilties 
were applied to mysteries the most sublime. Almost all the heretics of the 
time were renowned dialecticians, and their errors arose from an excess of 
subtilty. Roscelin, one of the leading dialecticians of his time, was the 
founder, or at least one of the leaders of the sect of the Nominalists. Abelard 
was celebrated for the readiness of his talents, his skill in disputation, and his 
address in explaining every thing to suit his thesis. The abuse of his intel- 
lect led him into the errors which we have already spoken of — errors which 
he would have avoided, had he not proudly yielded himself up to his own vain 
thoughts. The mania for subtilising every thing drew Gilbert de la Poiree 
into the most lamentable errors on the subject of the Divinity; Amaury, an- 
other celebrated philosopher, after the fashion of the time, took up so warmly 



408 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



the question of Aristotle's primordial matter, that he ended by declaring mat- 
ter to be God. The Church strenuously opposed these errors, which arose in 
great numbers in minds led astray by vain arguments, and puffed up with fool- 
ish pride. It would argue a strange misconception of the true interests of 
science, to suppose that the Church's resistance to these raving innovators was 
not most favorable to intellectual progress. 

These headstrong men, eager in the pursuit of knowledge, and captivated 
by the first chimera presented to their imagination, stood greatly in need of 
some discreet authority to restrain them within the bounds of reason and 
moderation. The intellect had scarcely taken the first steps in the career of 
knowledge, and yet fancied it already knew every thing, " pretending to know 
all things except the nescio, I know not," as St. Bernard reproaches the vain 
Abelard. Why should we not, for the good of humanity, and the credit of 
the human intellect, approve the condemnation pronounced by the Church 
against the errors of Gilbert, which aimed at nothing less than the overthrow 
of the ideas that we have of God ? If Amaury and his disciple David de 
Dinant are smitten by the sentence of the Church, it is because they destroy 
the idea of the Divinity by confounding the Creator with primordial matter. 
Was it for the advantage of Europe that its intellectual movement should be 
commenced by precipitating itself at the very outset into the abyss of pan- 
theism ? 

Had the human intellect followed in its development the way marked out 
for it by the Church, European civilization would have gained at least two 
centuries; the fourteenth century would have been as far advanced as the six- 
teenth was. To convince ourselves of the truth of this assertion, we have only 
to compare writings with writings, and men with men; the men most firmly 
attached to the faith of the Church attained to such eminence that they left 
the age in which they lived far behind them. Roscelin's antagonist was St. 
Anselm ; the latter always remained faithful to the authority of the Church ; 
the former rebelled against her : and who, let met ask, would have the hardi- 
hood to compare the dialectician of Compiegne with the learned Archbishop 
of Canterbury ? How vast the difference between the profound and skilful 
metaphysician who composed the Monologue and the Prosologue, and the fri- 
volous leader of the disputes of the Nominalists ! Have the subtilties and 
cavillings of Roscelin any weight whatever against the lofty thoughts of the 
man who, in the eleventh century, to prove the existence of God, could reject 
all vain and captious reasonings, concentrate himself within himself, consult 
his own ideas, compare them with their object, and demonstrate the existence 
of God from the very idea of God, thus anticipating Descartes by five 
hundred } T ears ? Who best understood the true interests of science ? Show 
me how the intellect of St. Anselm was degraded or shackled by the influence 
of the formidable authority of the Church, by any usurpation on the part of 
Popes of the rights of the human mind. And can Abelard himself be com- 
pared, either as a man, or as a writer, with his Catholic adversary, St. Ber- 
nard ? Abelard was a perfect master of all the subtilties of the schools ; noisy 
disputes were his amusement ; he was intoxicated with the applause of his 
disciples, who were dazzled by their master's talents and courage, and still more 
by the learned follies of the age ; yet what has become of his works ? Who 
reads them ? Who ever thinks of finding in them a single page of sound rea- 
soning, the description of a single great event, or a picture of the manners of 
the time, in other words, the least matter of interest to science or history ? 
On the contrary, what man of learning has not often sought this in the im- 
mortal works of St. Bernard ? 

It is impossible to find a more sublime personification of the Church com- 
bating against the heretics of his time than the illustrious Abbot of Clairvaux, 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



409 



contending against all innovators, and speaking, if we may use the term, in 
the name of the Catholic faith. No one could more worthily represent the 
ideas and sentiments which the Church endeavored to diffuse amongst man- 
kind, nor more faithfully delineate the course through which Catholicity would 
have led the human mind. Let us pause for a moment in the presence of this 
gigantic mind, which attained to an eminence far beyond any of its contem- 
poraries. This extraordinary man fills the world with his name — upheaves it 
by his words — sways it by his influence ; in the midst of darkness he is its 
light; he forms, as it were, a mysterious link, connecting the two epochs of 
St. Jerome and St. Augustine, of Bossuet and Bourdaloue. In the midst of 
a general relaxation and corruption of morals, by the strictest observances and 
the most perfect purity he is proof against every assault. Ignorance prevails 
throughout all classes ; he studies night and day to enlighten his mind. A 
false and counterfeit erudition usurps the place of true knowledge ; he knows 
its unsoundness, disdains and despises it; and his eagle eye discovers at a glance 
that the star of truth moves at an immense distance from this false reflection, 
from this crude mass of subtilties and follies, which the men of his time termed 
philosophy. If at that period there existed any useful learning, it was to be 
sought in the Bible, and in the writings of the holy Fathers ; to the study of 
these, therefore, St. Bernard devotes himself unremittingly. Far from con- 
sulting the vain babblers who are arguing and declaiming in the shools, St. 
Bernard seeks his inspirations in the silence of the cloister, or in the august 
sanctuary of the temple ; if he goes out, it is to contemplate the great book 
of nature, to study eternal truths in the solitude of the desert, and, as he him- 
self has expressed it, " in forests of beech-trees." 

Thus did this great man, rising superior to the prejudices of his time, avoid 
the evil produced in his contemporaries by the method then prevailing. By 
this method the imagination and the feelings were stifled; the judgment 
warped ; the intellect sharpened to excess ; and learning converted into a laby- 
rinth of confusion. Read the works of the sainted Abbot of Clairvaux, and 
you will find that all his faculties go, as it were, hand in hand. If you look 
for imagination, you will find the finest coloring, faithful portraits, and splen- 
did descriptions. If you want feeling, you will learn how skilfully he finds 
his way into the heart, captivates, subdues, and fashions it to his will. Now 
he strikes a salutary fear into the hardened sinner, tracing with great force the 
formidable picture of the divine justice and the eternal vengeance ; then he 
consoles and sustains the man who is sinking under worldly adversity, the as- 
saults of his passions, the recollection of his transgressions, or an exaggerated 
fear of the divine justice. Do you want pathos? Listen to his colloquies with 
Jesus and Mary ; hear him speaking of the blessed Virgin with such enrap- 
turing sweetness, that he seems to exhaust all the epithets that the liveliest 
hope and the most pure and tender love can suggest. Would you have vigor 
and vehemence of style, and that irresistible torrent of eloquence which no- 
thing can resist, which carries the mind beyond itself, fires it with enthusiasm, 
compels it to enter upon the most arduous paths, and to undertake the most 
heroic enterprises ? See him with his burning words inflaming the zeal of the 
people, nobles, and kings ; moving them to quit their homes, to take up arms, 
and to unite in numerous armies that pour into Asia to rescue the Holy Sepulchre. 
This extraordinary man is every where met with, every where heard. Entirely 
free from ambition, he possesses, nevertheless, a leading influence in the great 
affairs of Europe : though fond of solitude and retirement, he is continually 
obliged to quit the obscurity of the cloister to assist in the councils of kings 
and pjpes. He never flatters, never betrays the truth, never dissembles the 
sacred ardor which burns within his breast; and yet he is every where lis- 
tened to with profound respect ; his stern voice is heard in the cottages of the 

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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



poor and in the palaces of kings ; he admonishes with terrible severity the 

most obscure monk and the Sovereign Pontiff. 

In the midst of so much ardor and activity, his mind loses none of its 
clearness or precision. His exposition of a point of doctrine is remarkable 
for ease and lucidity ; his demonstrations are vigorous and conclusive ; his rea- 
soning is conducted with a force of logic that presses close upon his adversary, 
and leaves him no means of escape : in defence, his quickness and address are 
surprising. In his answers he is clear and precise ; in repartee, quick and 
penetrating ; and without dealing in the subtilties of the schools, he displays 
wonderful tact in disentangling truth from error, sound reason from artifice and 
fraud. Here is a man formed entirely and exclusively under the influence of 
Catholicity ; a man who never strayed from the pale of the Church, who never 
dreamed of setting his intellect free from the yoke of authority ; and yet he 
rises like a mighty pyramid above all the men of his time. 

To the eternal honor of the Catholic Church, and utterly to disprove the 
accusation brought against her, of exerting an influence hostile to the freedom 
of the human mind, I must observe that St. Bernard was not the only man who 
rose superior to the age, and pointed out the way to genuine progress. It is 
unquestionably certain, that the most distinguished men of that period, those 
least influenced by the evils that so long kept the human mind in pursuit of 
mere vanities and shadows, were precisely the men most devotedly attached to 
Catholicity. These men set an example of what was necessary to be done for 
the advancement of learning ; an example that for a long time had, it is true, 
but few followers, but which found some in subsequent ages : now it is to be 
observed that the progress of learning was due to the credit obtained by this 
method — I speak of the study of antiquity. 

The sacred sciences were the chief object of attention at this period; as the 
intellect was theologically developed, dialectics and metaphysics were studied 
with a view to their application to theology. With Roscelin, Abelard, Gilbert 
de la Poiree, and Amaury, the phrase was : " Let us reason, subtilise, and 
apply our systems to all sorts of questions j let our reason be our rule and 
guide, without which knowledge is impossible. " With St. Bernard, St. An- 
selm, Hugh and Richard de St. Victor, Peter Lombard, on the contrary, it was : 
" Let us see what antiquity teaches ; let us study the works of the holy Fa- 
thers ; let us analyse and compare their texts ; we cannot place our dependence 
exclusively on arguments, which are sometime dangerous and sometimes futile." 
Which of these two judgments has been actually confirmed ? Which of these 
methods was adopted when real progress was to be made ? Was not recourse 
had to an unremitting study of ancient works ? Was it not found necessary 
to throw aside the cavils of the dialecticians ? Protestants themselves boast 
of having taken this way ; their theologians consider it an honor to be versed 
in antiquity j and would be offended if treated as mere dialecticians. On which 
side, then, was reason ? With the heretics, or with the Church ? Who best 
understood the method most favorable to intellectual progress ? The heretical 
dialectician, or the orthodox doctor ? To these questions there can only be one 
reply. These are not mere opinions— they are facts ; not an empty theory, 
but the actual history of learning, as known by all the world, and as represented 
to us in irrefragable documents. Unless prepossessed by the authority of M. 
G-uizot, the reader certainly cannot complain that I have eschewed questions of 
history, or claimed his belief on my own bare word. 

Unhappily, mankind seemed doomed never to find the true road without 
going a long way round ; thus the intellect, taking the very worst way of all, 
went in pursuit of subtilties and cavils, forsaking the beaten track of reason 
and good sense. At the beginning of the twelfth century the evil had reached 
to such a height, that to apply a remedy was no slight undertaking ; nor is it 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



411 



easy to say how far matters might have gone, nor what evils would have ensued 
in various ways, had not Providence, who never abandons the care of the moral, 
any more than of the physical universe, raised up an extraordinary genius, who, 
rising to an immense height above the men of his age, reduced the chaos to 
order. Out of the undigested mass, by retrenching here, adding there, clas- 
sifying and explaining, this man collected a fund of real learning. Persons ac- 
quainted with the history of learning at that time will readily understand that 
I speak of St. Thomas Aquinas. Rightly to appreciate the extraordinary 
merit of this great Doctor, we must view him in connection with the times and 
circumstances of which we are treating. Beholding in St. Thomas Aquinas 
one of the most luminous, most comprehensive, and most penetrating intellects 
that have ever adorned the human race, we are almost tempted to think that 
his appearance in the thirteenth century was inopportune ; we regret that he 
did not live in a more recent age, to enter the lists with the most illustrious 
men of whom modern Europe can boast. But, upon further reflection, we find 
that the human mind owes so much to him, we see so clearly the reason why 
his appearance at the time when Europe received his lectures was most oppor- 
tune, that we have no other feeling left than one of profound admiration of 
the designs of Providence. 

What was the philosophy of his time ? Amidst the strange compound of 
Greek and Arabian philosophy and of Christian ideas, what would have become 
of dialectics, metaphysics, and morality ? We have already seen what sort of 
fruit began to grow out of such combinations, favored by a degree of ignorance 
unable to distinguish the real nature of things, and encouraged by pride that 
pretended to a knowledge of every thing. And yet the evil was only begin- 
ning ; its further development would have been attended with symptoms still 
more alarming. Fortunately, this great man appeared ; the first touch of his 
powerful hand advanced learning two or three centuries. He could not root 
out the evil, but at least he applied a remedy ; owing to his indisputable supe- 
riority, his method and his learning soon won their way everywhere. He 
became, as it were, the centre of a grand system, round which all other scho- 
lastic writers were forced to revolve ; he thus prevented a multitude of errors 
that without his intervention would have been almost inevitable. He found 
the schools in a state of complete anarchy; he reduced them to order; and on 
account of his angelic intellect, and his eminent sanctity, was looked up to as 
their sublime dictator. This is the view I take of the mission of St. Thomas ; 
it will be viewed in the same light by all those who study his works, and do 
not content themselves with a hasty perusal of a biographical article respect- 
ing him. 

Now this man was a Catholic, and the Catholic Church venerates him upon 
her altars, and I do not see that his mind was shackled by authority in mat- 
ters of faith ; it goes abroad freely amongst all the branches of knowledge ; he 
unites in his person such extensive and profound acquirements as to appear a 
prodigy for the age in which he lived. We observe in St. Thomas, notwith- 
standing the purely scholastic method which he adopted, the same characteristic 
that we discover in all the eminent Catholic writers of the times. He reasons 
much ; but it is easy to see that he does not trust entirely to his reason, but 
proceeds with that wise diffidence which is an unequivocal sign of real learning. 
He avails himself of the doctrines of Aristotle ; but evidently would have made 
less use of them, and more of the Fathers, but for his leading idea, which was, 
to make the philosophy of his time subservient to the defence of religion. The 
reader must not suppose that his metaphysics and moral philosophy are a con- 
geries of inexplicable enigmas, as a knowledge of the period at which he wrote 
might lead us to apprehend. Nothing of the kind ; and any one who entertains 
such an idea has evidently not spent much time in the study of his writings. 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



His metaphysical works, it must be acknowledged, make us perfectly acquainted 
with the dominant ideas of the time ; but it is equally undeniable, that in every 
page we meet with the most luminous passages on the most complicated ques- 
tions of ideology, ontology, cosmology, and psychology ; so much so, that we 
almost imagine we are reading the works of a philosopher who wrote after the 
fullest development of the sciences had been attained. 

What his political ideas were, we have already seen; were it necessary, and 
did the nature of the present work permit, I might here produce many frag- 
ments from his Treatise on Laws and on Justice, distinguished for such solid 
principles, such lofty views, so profound a knowledge of the nature of society, 
that they would occupy an honorable position amongst the best works on legis- 
lation written in modern times. His treatises on virtues and vices, whether 
considered generally, or in detail, exhaust the subject, and defy all subsequent 
writers to produce a single idea of any importance that has not been already 
either developed, or at least suggested in them. Above all, his works are 
remarkable for moderation and extreme reserve in doctrinal expositions, in 
which respect they are eminently conformable to the spirit of Catholicity ; and 
assuredly if all writers had followed in his footsteps, the field of science would 
have presented us with an assembly of sages, and would not have been con- 
verted into a blood-stained arena for furious combatants. Such is his modesty, 
that he does not relate a single incident in his life, private or public ; from 
him we hear nothing but the language of enlightened reason, calmly dispensing 
its treasures : the man, with his fame, his misfortunes, his labors, and all his 
vain pretensions, with which other writers are wont to weary us, never appears 
for an instant. (41) 



CHAPTER LXXII. 

ON THE PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN MIND FROM THE ELEVENTH CENTURY TO 

THE PRESENT TIME. 

I think I have satisfactorily vindicated the Catholic Church from the 
reproaches cast upon her by her enemies, for her conduct during the eleventh 
and twelfth centuries in reference to the development of the human mind. Let 
us now take a rapid survey of the march of intellect up to our own times, and 
see what titles Protestantism can produce to the gratitude of the friends of pro- 
gress in human knowledge. 

If I mistake not, the following are the phases through which the human 
mind has passed, since the revival of learning in the eleventh century. First 
came the epoch of subtilties, with its heaps of crude erudition j then the age of 
criticism, with appropriate attempts at grave controversies on the meaning of 
records and monuments ; and finally came the reflecting age, and the inaugura- 
tion of the philosophical period. The eleventh and succeeding centuries, to 
the sixteenth, were characterized by a fondness for dialectics and erudite 
trifles ; criticism and controversy formed the distinctive characteristics of the 
sixteenth, and part of the seventeenth centuries ; the philosophical spirit began 
to prevail towards the middle of the seventeenth, and continued to our own 
time. Now of what advantage was Protestantism to learning ? None ; Pro- 
testantism found learning already accumulated — this I can easily prove — 
Erasmus and Louis Vives shone in the time of Luther. 

Did Protestantism promote the study of criticism ? Yes ; just as an epidemic 
that decimates nations aids the progress of the medicinal art. But we must 
not suppose that the taste for this kind of literary labor would not have been 
disseminated without the aid of the pseudo-Reformation. As monuments came 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



413 



to light, as a knowledge of languages became more general, as the public 
acquired clearer and more correct notions of history, people would naturally 
set themselves to discriminate between the apocryphal and the authentic. The 
necessary documents were at hand, and were studied unremittingly ; for this 
was the favorite taste of the epoch. Under such circumstances, how is it pos- 
sible there should have existed no desire to examine to what author, and to 
what age, such documents severally belonged ; to investigate how far ignorance 
or dishonesty had falsified them, had taken from, or added to them ? On this 
subject, I need only relate what took place relative to the famous decretals of 
Isidore Mercator. These decretals had been received, without opposition, 
during the centuries anterior to the fifteenth, owing to the want of antiquarian 
and critical research ; but the moment that knowledge and facts began to accu- 
mulate, the edifice of imposture gave way. As early as the fifteenth century, 
Cardinal Cusa challenged the authenticity of certain decretals that had been 
supposed to be anterior to Pope Siricius ; and the reflections of the learned 
Cardinal led the way to other attacks of a similar kind. A serious discussion 
arose, in which Protestants naturally took part ; but it would unquestionably 
have been engaged in all the same, if Catholic writers had been left entirely 
to themselves. When the learned came to read the codes of Theodosius and 
Justinian, the works of antiquity, and collections of ecclesiastical records, they 
could not possibly fail to observe that the spurious decretals contained sen- 
tences and fragments belonging to an era posterior to the time to which they 
were referred ; and when once such doubts had arisen, error was sure to be 
promptly exposed. 

We may say of controversy, what we have just said of criticism. There 
would have been no want of controversy, even if the unity of the faith had 
never been violated. In support of this assertion, the recollection of what 
occurred amongst the different schools of Catholics is quite conclusive. These 
schools were engaged in controversy amongst themselves, in the presence even 
of the common opponent : and we may rest assured that, if their attention had 
not been partially diverted by that enemy, their polemical discussions would 
have been maintained only with the greater energy and warmth. Protestants 
have no more the advantage over Catholics, as regards controversy than as 
regards criticism. However true it be that some of our theologians did not 
see the necessity of opposing the enemy with arms superior to those taken from 
the arsenal of Aristotelian philosophy, it is quite certain that a great number 
of them took up a sufficiently lofty position, and were thoroughly impressed 
with the importance of the crisis, and urged the introduction of very great 
modifications into the course of theological studies. Bellarmin, Melchior Cano, 
Petau, and many others, were no way inferior to the most skilful Protestants, 
whatever may have been the boasted scientific merits of the defenders of error. 

The knowledge of the learned languages must have contributed in an extra- 
ordinary degree to the progress of critical and controversial learning. Now I 
do not see that Catholics were behind others in the knowledge of Latin, Greek, 
and Hebrew. Anthony de Nebrija, Erasmus, Louis Vives, Lawrence Villa, 
Leonardus Aretinus, Cardinal Bembo, Sadolet, Poggio, Melchior Cano, and 
many others, too numerous to mention ; were they, I ask, trained in Protest- 
antism ? Did not the Popes, moreover, take the lead in this literary movement ? 
Who patronized the learned with greater liberality ? Who supplied them with 
more abundant resources ? Who incurred greater expenses in the purchase of 
the best manuscripts ? Nor let it be forgotten, that such was the taste for pure 
Latinity, that some among the learned objected to read the Vulgate, for fear 
of acquiring inelegant phrases. 

As regards Greek, we need only bear in mind the causes that led to its dif- 
fusion in Europe, to be convinced that the progress made in the knowledge of 

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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



this language owes nothing whatever to the pseudo-Reformation. It is well 
known that, after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, the literary 
remains of that unfortunate nation were brought to the coasts of Italy. In 
Italy the study of Greek was first seriously commenced j from Italy it spread 
to France, and to the other European states. Half a century before the 
appearance of Protestantism, this language was taught in Paris by the Italian 
Gregory de Tiferno. At the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the six- 
teenth centuries, Germany itself could boast of the celebrated John Reuchlin, 
who taught Greek with great applause, first at Orleans and Poictiers, and after- 
wards at Ingolstadt. Reuchlin, being on one occasion at Rome, so felicitously 
explained, and read with so pure an accent, a passage from Thucydides, in the 
presence of Argyropilus, that the latter, filled with admiration, exclaimed : 
" Grcecia nostra exilio transvolavit Alpes ; our exiled Greece has crossed the 
Alps." 

Respecting Hebrew, I will transcribe a passage from the Abbe Goujet : 
" Protestants," says he, " would fain have it thought that they effected the 
revival of this language in Europe ; but they are forced to acknowledge, that 
whatever they know of Hebrew they owe to the Catholics, who were their 
teachers, and the sources whence, even to this day, is obtained all that is most 
valuable in Oriental literature. John Reuchlin, who lived the greater part of 
his time in the fifteenth century, was unquestionably a Catholic/ and one of the 
most skilful Hebrew scholars, and was also the first Christian who reduced the 
teaching of that language to a system. John Weissel of Groningen had taught 
him the elements of this language, and had himself pupils in whom he had 
awakened a love for this study. In like manner, it was by the exertions of 
Picus de Mirandula, who was a strict Catholic, that a taste for the study of 
Hebrew was revived in the West. At the time of the Council of Trent, most 
of the heretics who then knew that language had learned it in the bosom of the 
Church they had forsaken ; and their vain subtilties respecting the meaning of 
the sacred text excited the faithful to still greater assiduity in the study of a 
language so well calculated to insure their own triumph and the defeat of their 
opponents. In devoting themselves to this branch of study, moreover, they 
were only following out the intentions of Pope Clement V., who, as early as 
the beginning of the fourteenth century, had ordained that Greek, and Hebrew, 
and even Arabic and Chaldean, should be publicly taught, for the benefit of 
foreigners, at Rome, at Paris, at Oxford, at Bologna, and at Salamanca. The 
design of this Pope, who so well knew the advantages resulting from well-con- 
ducted studies, was, to augment the learning of the Church by the study of 
languages, and to raise up doctors capable of defending her against every form 
of error. By means of these languages, and more especially of Hebrew, he 
intended to renew the study of the sacred books, that the latter, when read in 
the original, might appear more worthy of the Holy Spirit who inspired them, 
and by their combined grandeur and simplicity, when better known, awaken 
greater reverence for them ; and that, without derogating from the respect due 
to the Latin version, it might be felt that an intimate acquaintance with the 
originals was peculiarly serviceable in confirming the faith of believers, and 
confuting heretics." (L'Abbe Goujet, Discours sur le renouvellemcnt des 
Etudes, et principalement des Etudes ecclesiastiques dejpuis le quatorzieme siecle.} 

One of the causes which contributed the most to the development of the 
human mind was the creation of great centres of instruction, collecting the 
most illustrious talents and learning, and diffusing rays of light in all direc- 
tions. I know not how men could forget that this idea was not due to the pre- 
tended Reformation, seeing that most of the universities of Europe were estab- 
lished long before the birth of Luther. That of Oxford was established in 895 ; 
Cambridge in 1280 ; that of Prague, in Bohemia, in 1358 ; that of Louvain, in 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



415 



Belgium, in 1425 ; that of Vienna, in Austria, in 1365 ; that of Ingolstadt, in 
Germany, in 1372 ; that of Leipsic in 1408 j that of Basle, in Switzerland, in 
1469 ; that of Salamanca in 1200 j that of Alcala in 1517. It would be super- 
fluous to notice the antiquity of the universities of Paris, of Bologna, of Fer- 
rara, and of a great many others, which attained the highest renown long before 
the advent of Protestantism. The Popes, it is well known, took an active part 
in the establishment of universities, granting them privileges, and bestowing 
upon them the highest honors and distinctions. How can any one, then, ven- 
ture to assert, that Rome has opposed the progress of learning and the sciences, 
in order to keep the people in darkness and ignorance ? As if Divine Provi- 
dence had intended to confound these future calumniators of His Church, 
Protestantism made its appearance precisely at the time when, under the 
auspices of a renowned Pope, the progress in the science, in literature and the 
arts was most active. Posterity, judging of our disputes with impartiality, 
will undoubtedly pass a severe sentence upon those pretended philosophers, 
who are constantly endeavoring to prove from history, that Catholicity has 
impeded the progress of the human mind, and that scientific progress has been 
all owing to the cry of liberty raised in central Germany. Yes ; sensible men 
in future ages, like those of our own times, will form a correct judgment upon 
this subject, when they reflect that Luther began to propagate his errors in the 
age of Leo X. 

Certainly, the court of Rome could not at that time be reproached with 
obscurantism. Rome was at the head of all progress, which she urged onwards 
with the most active zeal, the most ardent enthusiasm; so much so, indeed, 
that if she were censurable at all — if there were in her conduct any thing of 
which history should disapprove — it was rather that her march was too quick 
than too slow. Had another St. Bernard addressed Leo X., he would assuredly 
not have blamed him for abusing his authority to impede the march of the 
human intellect and the progress of learning. " The Reformation," says M. 
de Chateaubriand, " deeply imbued with the spirit of its founder — a coarse 
and jealous monk — declared itself the enemy of the arts. By prohibiting the 
exercise of the imaginative faculties, it clipped the wings of genius, and made 
her plod on foot. It raised an outcry against certain alms destined for the 
erection of the basilica of St. Peter for the use of the Christian world. Would 
the Greeks have refused the assistance solicited from their piety for the build- 
ing of a temple to Minerva ? Had the Reformation been completely successful 
from the beginning, it would have established, for a time at least, another 
species of barbarism : viewing as superstition the pomp of divine worship ; as 
idolatry the chefs-d'oeuvre of sculpture, of architecture, and of painting, its ten- 
dency was to annihilate lofty eloquence and sublime poetry — to degrade taste, 
by repudiating its models — to introduce a dry, cold, and captious formality into 
the operations of the mind — to substitute in society affectation and materialism 
in lieu of ingenuousness and intellectuality, and to make machinery take the 
place of manual and mental operations. These are truths confirmed by every- 
day experience. 

" Amongst the various branches of the reformed religion, their approxima- 
tion to the beautiful and sublime is always found to be proportioned to the 
amount of Catholic truth they have retained. In England, where an eccle- 
siastical hierarchy has been upheld, literature has had its classic era. Luther- 
anism preserves some sparks of imagination, which Calvinism aims at utterly 
extinguishing; and so on, till we come to Quakerism, which would reduce 
social life to unpolished manners and the practice of trades. Shakspeare, in 
all probability, was a Catholic ; Milton has evidently imitated some parts of 
the poems of St. Avitus and Masenius ; Klopstock has borrowed very largely 
from the faith of Rome. In our own days, in Germany, the high imaginative 



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PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



powers have been put forth only when the spirit of Protestantism had begun 
to decline. It was in treating Catholic subjects that the genius of Goethe and 
Schiller was manifested ; Rousseau and Madame de Stael are, indeed, illus- 
trious exceptions to this rule ; but were they Protestants after the model of 
the first disciples of Calvin ? At this very day, painters, architects, and sculp- 
tors, of all the conflicting creeds, go to seek inspiration at Rome, where they 
find universal toleration. Europe, nay, the whole world, is covered with monu- 
ments of the Catholic religion. To it we are indebted for that Gothic archi- 
tecture, which rivals in its details, and eclipses in its magnificence, the monu- 
ments of Greece. It is now three centuries since Protestantism arose, — it is 
powerful in England, in Germany, in America, — it is professed by millions of 
men, — and what has it erected? It can show only the ruins it has made; on 
which perhaps, it has planted gardens or built factories. Rebelling against the 
authority of tradition, the experience of centuries, and the venerable wisdom 
of ages, Protestantism let go its hold on the past, and planted a society with- 
out roots. Acknowledging for their founder a German monk of the sixteenth 
century, the reformers renounced the wonderful genealogy that unites Catho- 
lics, through a succession of great and holy men, with Jesus Christ Himself, 
and, through Him, with the patriarchs and the earliest of mankind. The Pro- 
testant era, from the first hours of its existence, refused all relationship with 
the era of that Leo who protected the civilized world against Attila, and also 
with the era of that other Leo, at whose coming barbarism vanished, and 
society, now no longer in need of defence, put on the ornaments of civiliza- 
tion." (Etud. Histor., Francois I.) 

It is much to be regretted that the author of such noble sentiments, who so 
accurately describes the effects of Protestantism on literature and the arts, 
should have said, that " the Reformation was, properly speaking, philosophic 
truth, under the guise of Christianity, attacking religious truth." (Etud. 
Histor., Preface.) What is the meaning of these words ? We shall best un- 
derstand them from the illustrious author's own explanation. " Religious 
truth/' says he, " is the knowledge of one God manifested in a form of worship. 
Philosophic truth is the threefold knowledge of things intellectual, moral, and 
natural." (Etud. Histor., Exposition.) It is diflicult to imagine how any 
one who admits the truth of the Catholic religion, and, as a necessary conse- 
quence, the falsehood of Protestantism, can define the latter to be, philoso- 
phic truth at war with religious truth. In the natural, as well as in the super- 
natural, order of things, in philosophy as in religion, all truths come from 
God, all end in Him. There cannot, therefore, be any antagonism between 
truths of one order and truths of another order ; between religious and true 
philosophy, between nature and grace, no antagonism is possible. Truth is 
that which is j for truth resides in beings themselves j we should rather say, 
it consists of beings themselves such as they exist, such as they are in their 
substance ; and hence it is quite incorrect to say that philosophic truth has 
ever stood in antagonism to religious truth. 

According to the same author " Philosophic truth is neither more nor less 
than the independence of the human mind j its tendency being to make dis- 
coveries, and lead to perfection in the three sciences that come within its sphere, 
viz. the intellectual, the moral, and the natural. But philosophic truth," he 
continues, " looking forwards to the future, has stood in opposition to religious 
truth, which adheres to the past, owing to the immovable nature of the eternal 
principle upon which it is founded." (Etud. Histor., Exposition.) With all 
the respect due to the immortal author of the Genie du Christianisme and of 
the Martyrs, I must take the liberty to observe, that we find here a lamentable 
confusion of ideas. The philosophic truth of which M. de Chateaubriand here 
treats, must be either science itself, considered as an aggregate of truths, or a 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



417 



general knowledge, in which truth and error are commingled j or, in fine, the 
whole body of men of learning, considered as constituting a very influential 
class in society. In the first case, it is impossible for philosophic truth to be 
in antagonism to religious truth, — that is, to Catholicity ; in the second case, 
the alleged opposition is nothing extraordinary, for error being in this case 
mixed up with truth, will on some points be found to be opposed to Catholic 
faith j and, finally, as regards the third hypothesis, it is unfortunately too true, 
that many men, distinguished by their talents and erudition, have been opposed 
to Catholicity j but, on the other hand, as great a number of men equally 
eminent have triumphantly maintained the truth of Catholicity j hence it would 
be extremely illogical to affirm that philosophic truth, even in this sense, is op- 
posed to religious truth. 

It is not my wish to give an unfavorable interpretation to the words of the 
illustrious writer \ I rather incline to think, that, in his mind, philosophic truth 
is nothing but a spirit of independence considered in a general, vague, and un- 
defined sense, and not as applied to any object in particular. This is the only 
way to reconcile assertions so different ; for it is quite clear, that, after he had 
so severely condemned the Protestant Reformation, the writer could not pro- 
ceed to admit that this same Reformation carried with it philosophic truth, 
properly so called, wherein it became opposed to Catholic doctrines. But, in 
this case, the language of the illustrious author is unquestionably wanting in 
precision ; this, however, need not surprise us, as, upon reflection, we shall find 
that, in treating historico-philosophical subjects, precision is not to be expected 
from writers whose genius has been wont to soar into the highest regions on 
the wings of a sublime poetry. 

It was not either in Germany or in England, but in Catholic France, that 
the philosophical movement advanced with the greatest freedom and daring. 
Descartes, the founder of a new era in philosophy, that superseded the Aris- 
totelian, and gave a fresh impulse to the study of logic, of physics, and meta- 
physics, was a Frenchman and a Catholic. The greater part of his most dis- 
tinguished followers were also in communion with the Roman Church. Philo- 
sophy, then, in the highest sense of the word, owes nothing to Protestantism. 
Before Leibnitz, Grermany could scarcely reckon a single philosopher of any note ; 
and the English shools that attained to any thing like celebrity arose after 
Descartes' time. We shall find, upon reflection, that France was the centre of 
the philosophical movement from the end of the sixteenth century ) and at 
that period all the Protestant countries were so backward in this kind of study, 
that the active progress of philosophy amongst the Catholics was scarcely no- 
ticed by them. In like manner, it was in the bosom of the Catholic Church 
that the taste arose for profound meditations on the secrets of the heart, and 
on the relations of the human mind to G-od and nature, and that sublime ab- 
straction which concentrates man's faculties, sets him free from the body, and 
elevates him to those exalted regions that appear destined to be visited ex- 
clusively by celestial spirits. Is not mysticism, in its pursest, most refined, 
and most elevated form, found in our Catholic writers of the golden age ? Since 
that time, what has been published that may not be met with in the works of 
St. Teresa, in those of St. John of the Cross, in the venerable Avila, in Louis 
de Grenada, and in Louis de Leon ? 

And Pascal, that man of thought, one of the most vigorous geniuses of the 
seventeenth century, who was unhappily deceived for some time by a hypocri- 
tical and canting sect, was he a Protestant ? Was it not he who laid the basis 
of that philosophico-religious school, whose investigations, directed at one time 
to the deepest questions of religion, at another to those of nature, or to the 
mysteries of the human heart, have surrounded truth with a flood of light ? 
Do not the apologists of Christianity, whether Protestants or Catholics, when 
53 



418 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



engaged in combating indifference or incredulity, avail themselves by prefer- 
ence of his Pensees? Authors who have written on the philosophy of history 
have perhaps surpassed all others in their eagerness to vilify the Church as the 
enemy of enlightenment, whilst they represent Protestantism as the great bul- 
wark of the rights of the mind. Now, gratitude alone should have induced 
them to proceed more circumspectly j they should not forget that the real 
founder of the philosophy of history was a Catholic, and that the first and 
best work ever written on this subject came from the pen of a Catholic Bishop. 
It was Bossuet, in his immortal Discours sur V Histoire Universelle, who first 
taught our modern thinkers to take a lofty survey of the human race ; to em- 
brace at one view all the events that have marked the course of ages, contem- 
plating them in all their vastness and intimate connection, with all their phases, 
effects, and causes, and to draw from them salutary lessons for the instruction 
both of princes and people. Now, Bossuet was a Catholic, and, moreover, one 
of the most trenchant adversaries of the Protestant Reformation. His fame 
is heightened too by another work, in which he completely overthrows the doc- 
trines of the innovators, by proving their continual variations, and demonstrat- 
ing that theirs must be the way of error, seeing that variation is incompatible 
with truth. We may ask the abettors of Protestantism, if the Eagle of Meaux 
feels in his flight the fetters of the Catholic religion, when, glancing at the 
origin and^destiny of mankind, at the fall of our first parents and its conse- 
quences, on the revolutions of the East and West, he traces with such wonder- 
ful sublimit}^ the designs of Divine Providence ? 

As regards the literary movement, I might almost consider myself relieved 
from all necessity of combating the reproaches cast upon Catholicity by its 
enemies. What, in fact, was the literature of all the Protestant countries 
together, at the time when Italy produced those orators and poets, who, in suc- 
ceeding ages, have been universally received as models 'i Various descriptions 
of literature were already quite common in Catholic countries, that were not 
even known in England or Germany ; and when, at a later period, an attempt 
was made to fill up the hiatus, no better means could be found for the purpose 
than to take for models the Spanish writers, who had been subject to Catholic 
obscurantism and the fires of the Inquisition. 

Neither the mind, the heart, nor the imagination of man owes any thing to 
Protestantism. Before the Reformation these were all in graceful and vigorous 
progress ; after the Reformation, this progress continued in the bosom of the 
Catholic Church as successfully as before. Catholicity displays a bright array 
of illustrious men crowned with the glories they have won amidst the unani- 
mous plaudits of all civilized nations. Whatever has been said of the tendency 
of our religion to enslave and hoodwink the mind, is but calumny. No ; that 
which is born of light, cannot produce darkness ; that which is the work of 
truth itself, need not fly from the sun's rays to conceal itself in the bowels of 
the earth. The daughter of heaven may walk in the brightness of day, may 
dare discussion, may gather around her all the brightest intellects ; well assured 
that the more closely and attentively they see and contemplate her, the more 
pure, the more beauteous and enrapturing will she appear. 



419 



CHAPTER LXXIII. 

SUMMARY. DECLARATION OF THE AUTHOR. 

Having reached the end of my difficult enterprise, let me be allowed to take 
a retrospective view of the vast space over which I have but just passed, like 
the traveller who rests after his labor. The fear of seeing religious schism 
introduced into my country ; the sight of the efforts which were made to incul- 
cate Protestant errors amongst us ; the perusal of certain writings, wherein it 
was stated that the pretended Reformation had been favorable to the progress 
of nations, — such were the motives which inspired me with the idea of under- 
taking this work. My object was, to show that neither individuals nor society 
owe any thing to Protestantism, either in a religious, social, political, or lite- 
rary point of view. I undertook to examine what history tells us, and what 
philosophy teaches us, on this point. I was not ignorant of the immense extent 
of the questions which I had to enter upon ; I was far from flattering myself 
that I was able to clear them up in a becoming manner; nevertheless I set forth 
upon my journey, with that courage which is inspired by the love of truth, and 
the confidence that one is defending its cause. 

When considering the birth of Protestantism, I have endeavored to take as 
lofty a view as possible. I have rendered to men that justice which is due to 
them ; I have attributed a large portion of the evil to the wretched condition 
of mankind, to the weakness of our minds, and to that inheritance of perverse- 
ness and ignorance which has been transmitted to us by the fall of our first 
parent. Luther, Calvin, and Zuinglius have disappeared from my eyes ; placed 
in the immense picture of events, they have been viewed by me as small 
imperceptible figures, whose individuality was far from deserving the import- 
ance which was given to them at other periods. Honest in my convictions, 
and unreserved in my words, I have acknowledged with candor, but with sor- 
row, that there existed certain abuses, and that these abuses were taken as 
pretexts when it was wished to break the unity of the faith. I have allowed 
that a portion of the blame shall also fall upon men ; but I have also pointed 
out, that the more you here lay stress upon the weakness and wickedness of 
man, the more do you illustrate the providence of Him who has promised to 
be with His Church till the consummation of ages. 

By the aid of reasoning and irrefragable experience, I have proved that the 
fundamental dogmas of Protestantism show little knowledge of the human 
mind, and were a fruitful source of errors and catastrophes. Then, turning 
my attention to the development of European civilization, I have made a con- 
tinued comparison between Protestantism and Catholicity ; and I believe that 
I may assert, that I have not hazarded any proposition of importance without 
having supported it by the evidence of historical facts. I have found it neces- 
sary to take a survey of all ages, dating from the commencement of Chris- 
tianity, and to observe the different phases under which civilization has 
appeared ; without this, it would have been impossible to give a complete vin- 
dication of the Catholic religion. 

The reader may have observed that the prevailing idea of the work is this : 
" Before Protestantism European civilization had reached all the development 
which was possible for it ; Protestantism perverted the course of civilization, 
and produced immense evils in modern society ; the progress which has been 
made since Protestantism, has been made not by it, but in spite of it." I have 
only consulted history, and I have taken extreme care not to pervert it ; I have 
borne in mind this passage of holy writ : " Has Grod, then, need of thy false- 
hood ?" The documents to which I refer are there ; they are to be found in all 
libraries, ready to answer; read them, and judge for yourselves. 



420 



PROTESTANTISM COMPARED WITH CATHOLICITY. 



I am not aware, in the multitude of questions which have presented them- 
selves to me, and which it has been indispensable for me to examine, that I 
have resolved any in a manner not in conformity with the dogmas of the reli- 
gion which I was desirous of defending. I am not aware that, in any passage 
of my book, I have laid down erroneous propositions, or expressed myself in 
ill-sounding terms. Before publishing my work, I submitted it to the exami- 
nation of ecclesiastical authority ; and without hesitation, I complied with the 
slightest hint on its part, purifying, correcting, and modifying what had been 
pointed out as worthy of purification, correction, or modification. Notwith- 
standing that, I submit my whole work to the judgment of the Catholic, 
Apostolic, and Roman Church ; as soon as the Sovereign Pontiff, the Vicar 
of Jesus Christ upon earth, shall pronounce sentence against any one of my 
opinions, I will hasten to declare that I consider that opinion erroneous, and 
cease to profess it. 



NOTES. 



Note 1, p. 26. 

The History of the Variations is one of those 
works which exhaust their subject, and which 
do not admit of reply or addition. If this im- 
mortal chef-d'oeuvre be read with attention, the 
cause of Protestantism, with respect to faith, is 
forever decided : there is no middle way left 
between Catholicity and infidelity. Gibbon 
read it in his youth, and he became a Catholic, 
abandoning the Protestant religion in which 
he had been brought up. "When, at a later 
period, he left the Catholic Church, he did not 
become a Protestant, but an unbeliever. My 
readers will perhaps like to learn from the 
mouth of this famous writer what he thought 
of the work of Bossuet, and the effect which 
was produced on him by its perusal. These 
are his words: "In the History of the Varia- 
tions, an attack equally vigorous and well- 
directed," says he, " Bossuet shows, by a happy 
mixture of reasoning and narration, the errors, 
mistakes, uncertainties, and contradictions of 
our first reformers, whose variations, as he 
learnedly maintains, bear the marks of error ; 
tohile the uninterrupted unity of the Catholic 
Church is a sign and testimony of infallible 
truth. I read, approved, and believed." (Gib- 
bon's 3femoirs.) 

Note 2, p. 27. 

It has been wished to represent Luther to us 
as a man of lofty ideas, of noble and generous 
feelings, and as a defender of the rights of the 
human race. Yet he himself has left us in his 
writings the most striking testimony of the 
violence of his character, of his disgusting 
rudeness, and his savage intolerance. Henry 
VIII., king of England, undertook to refute 
the book of Luther called JDe Captivitate Baby- 
lonica ; and behold the latter, irritated by such 
boldness, writes to the king, and calls him 
sacrilegious, mad, senseless, the grossest of all 
pigs and of all asses. It is evident that Luther 
paid but little regard to royalty ; he did the 
same with respect to literary merit. Erasmus, 
who was perhaps the most learned man of his 
age, or who at least surpassed all others in the 
variety of his knowledge, in the refinement and 
eclat of his mind, was not better treated by the 
furious innovator, in- spite of all the indulgence 
for which the latter was indebted to him. As 
soon as Luther saw that Erasmus did not think 
proper to be enrolled in the new sect, he at- 
tacked him with so much violence, that the 
latter complained of it, saying, "that in his 
old age he was compelled to contend against a 
savage beast, a furious wild boar." Luther 
did not confine himself to mere words; he 
proceeded to acts. It was at his instigation 
that Caxlostad was exiled from the states of 



the Duke of Saxony, and was reduced to such 
misery, that he was compelled to carry wood, 
and do other similar things, to gain his liveli- 
hood. In his many disputes with the Zwing- 
lians, Luther did not belie his character; he 
called them damned, fools, blasp>hemers. As 
he lavished such epithets on his dissenting 
companions, we cannot be astonished that he 
called the doctors of Louvain beasts, pigs, Pa- 
gans, Epicureans, Atheists ; and that he makes 
use of other expressions which decency will 
not allow us to cite ; and that, launching forth 
against the Pope, he says, "He is a mad wolf, 
against whom every one ought to take arms, with- 
out icaiting even for the order of the magistrates / 
in this matter there can be no room left for repent- 
ance, except for not having been able to bury 
the sword in his breast;" adding, "that all 
those who followed the Pope ought to be pur- 
sued like bandit-chiefs, were they kings or 
emperors." Such was the spirit of tolerance 
which animated Luther. And let it not be 
imagined that this intolerance was confined to 
him ; it extended to all the party of the inno- 
vators, and its effects were cruelly felt. We 
have an unexceptionable witness of this truth 
in Melancthon, the beloved disciple of Luther, 
and one of the most distinguished men that 
Protestantism has had. " I find myself under 
such oppression," wrote Melancthon to his 
friend Camerarius, " that I seem to be in the 
cave of the Cyclops; it is almost impossible 
for me to explain to you my troubles ; and 
every moment I feel myself tempted to take 
flight." "These are," he says, in another 
letter, "ignorant men, who know neither piety 
nor discipline ; behold what they are who com- 
mand, and you will understand that I am like 
Daniel in the lions' den." How, then, can it 
be maintained that such an enterprise was 
guided by a generous idea, and that it was 
really attempted to free the human mind? 
The intolerance of Calvin, sufficiently shown 
by the single fact mentioned in the text, is 
manifested in his works at every page, by the 
t manner in which he treats his adversaries. 
; Wicked men, rogues, drunkards, fools, mad- 
men, furies, beasts, bidls, pigs, asses, dogs, and 
vile slaves of Satan. Such are the polite terms 
which abound in the writings of the famous 
reformer. And how many wretched things 
of the same kind could I not relate, if I did 
not fear to disgust my readers ! 

Note 3, p. 27. 

The Diet of Spires had made a decree con- 
cerning the change of religion and worship; 
fourteen towns of the empire refused to submit 
to it, and presented a Protest; hence men be- 
gan to call the dissenters Protestants. As 
this name is a condemnation of the separated 
churches, they have several times attempted 



422 



NOTES. 



to assume others, but always in vain ; the 
names which they took were false, and false 
names do not last. What was their meaning 
when they called themselves Evangelicals? 
That they adhered to the Gospel alone ? In 
that case they ought rather to call themselves 
Biblicals ; for it was not to the Gospel that 
they professed to adhere, but to the Bible. 
They are also sometimes called Reformers ; 
and many people have been accustomed to call 
Protestantism, reformation ; but it is enough to 
pronounce this word, to feel how inappropriate 
it is ; religious revolution would be much more 
proper. 

Note 4, p. 27. 

Count de Maistre, in his work Du Pape, has 
developed this question of names in an inimi- 
table manner. Among his numerous observa- 
tions, there is one very just one : it is, that 
the Catholic Church alone has a positive and 
proper name, which she gives to herself, and 
which is given to her by the whole world. The 
separated Churches have invented many, but 
without the power of appropriating them. — 
"Each one was free to take what name he 
pleased," says M. de Maistre ; " Lais, in person, 
might be able to write upon her door, Hotel 
d'Artemise. The great point is, to compel 
others to give us a particular name, which is 
not so easy as to take it of our own authority." 

Moreover, it must not be imagined that 
Count de Maistre was the inventor of this 
argument ; a long time before him St. Jerome 
and St. Augustin had used it. " If you," says 
St. Jerome, "hear them called Marcionites, 
Valentinians, Montanists, know that they are 
not the Church of Christ, but the synagogue 
of Antichrist. — Si audieris nuncupari Marci- 
onitas, Valentinianos, Montanenses, scito, non 
Ecclesiam Christi, sed Antichristi esse syna- 
gogam." (Hieron. lib. Adversus Lucifer ianos.) 
" I am retained in the Church," says St. Au- 
gustin, " by her very name of Catholic ; for it 
was not without a cause that she alone, amid 
so many heresies, obtained tha£ name. All the 
• heretics desire to be called Catholics ; yet if a 
stranger asks them which is the church of the 
Catholics, none of them venture to point out 
their church or house. — Tenet me in Ecclesia 
ipsum Catholicae nomen, quod non sine causa 
inter tam multas haereses, sic ipsa sola obtinu- 
it, ut cum omnes hseretici se Catholicos dici 
velint, quaerenti tamen peregrino alicui, ubi ad 
Catholicam conveniatur, nullus haareticprum, 
vel basilicam suam vel domum audeat osten- 
dere." (St. Augustin.) What St. Augustin 
observed of his time is again realized with 
respect to the Protestants. I appeal to the 
testimony of those who have visited the coun- 
tries where different communions exist. An 
illustrious Spaniard of the seventeenth century, 
who had lived a long time in Germany, tells 
us, " They all wish to be called Catholic and 
Apostolical ; but notwithstanding this preten- 
sion, they are called Lutherans, or Calvinists. 
— Singuli volunt Catholici et Apostolici, sed 
volunt, et ab aliis non hoc praatenso illis no- 
mine, sed Luterani potius aut Calviniani nomi- 
nantur." (Caramuel.) " I have dwelt in the 
towns of heretics," continues the same writer, 
"and I have seen with my eyes and heard with 
-my ears a thing on which the heterodox should 



reflect : it is, that with the exception of the Pro- 
testant preacher, and a few others, who desire 
to know more of the thing than is necessary, all 
the crowd of heretics gave the name of Catholics 
to the Romans. — Habitavi in haereticorum civi- 
tatibus; et hoc propriis oculis vidi, propriis 
audivi auribus, quod deberet ab baeterodoxis 
ponderari, praiter praidicantem, et pauculos qui 
plus sapiunt quam oportet sapere, totum hoereti- 
corum vulgus Catholicos vocat Romanos." Such 
is the force of truth. The ideologists know 
well that these phenomena have deep causes, 
and that these arguments are something more 
than subtilties. 



Note 5, p. 38. 

So much has been said of abuses, the in- 
fluence which they may have had on the 
disasters which the Church suffered during the 
last centuries has been so much exaggerated, 
and at the same time so much care has been 
taken, by hypocritical praise, to exalt the purity 
of manners and strictness of discipline in the 
primitive Church, that some people have at 
last imagined a line of division between ancient 
and modern times. These persons see in the 
early times only truth and sanctity ; they 
attribute to the others only corruption and 
falsehood; as if, in the early ages of the 
Church, all the faithful were angels — as if the 
Church, at all times, had not errors to correct 
and passions to control. With history in our 
hands, it would be easy to reduce these exag- 
gerated ideas to their just value, to which 
Erasmus himself, certainly little disposed to 
exculpate his contemporaries, does justice. He 
clearly shows us, in a parallel between his 
own times and those of the early ages of the 
Church, how puerile and ill-founded was the 
desire, then so widely diffused, of exalting 
antiquity at the expense of the present time. 
We find a fragment of this parallel in the 
works of Marchetti, among his observations 
on Fleury's history. 

It would not be less curious to pass in review 
the regulations made by the Church to check 
all kinds of abuses. The collections of councils 
would furnish us with so many materials there- 
upon, that many volumes would not suffice to 
make them known ; or rather, these collections 
themselves, with alarming bulk, from one end 
to the other, are nothing but an evident proof 
of these two truths : 1st, that there have been 
at all times many abuses to be corrected, an 
effect, in some measure necessary, of the weak- 
ness and corruption of human nature; 2dly, 
that at all periods the Church has labored to 
correct these abuses, so that it may be affirmed 
without hesitation, that you cannot point out 
one without immediately finding a canonical 
regulation by its side to check or punish it. 
These observations clearly show that Protest- 
antism was not caused by abuses, but that it 
was a great calamity, as it were, rendered 
unavoidable by the fickleness of the human 
mind, and the condition in which society was 
placed. In the same sense Jesus Christ has 
said, that it was necessary that there should be 
scandal; not that any one in particular is 
forced to give it, but because such is the cor- 
ruption of the human heart, that the natural 
course of things must necessarily bring it. 



NOTES. 



423 



Note 6, p. 42. 
This concert and unity, which are found in 
Catholicity, are things which ought to fill every 
sensible man with admiration and astonish- 
ment, whatever his religious ideas may be. 
If we do not suppose that the finger of God is 
here, how can we explain or understand the 
continuance of the centre of unity in the see 
of Rome ? So much has been said of the 
supremacy of the Pope, that it is very difficult 
to add any thing new ; but perhaps our readers 
will not be displeased to see a passage of St. 
Francis de Sales, where the various remarkable 
titles given to the Sovereign Pontiff and to his 
see, by the Church in ancient times, are col- 
lected. This work of the holy Bishop is worthy 
of being introduced, not only because it in- 
terests the curiosity, but also because it fur- 
nishes matter for grave reflection, which we 
leave to the reader. 

TITLES OF THE POPE. 
Most Holy Bishop of the Catholic Church — Council 

of Soissons, of 300 Bishops. 
Most Holy and Blessed Patriarch — Ibid., t. vii., 

Council. 

Most Blessed Lord — St. Augustine, Ep. 95. 
Universal Patriarch— St. Leo, P., Ep. 62. 
Ohief of the Church in the World— Innoc. ad P. P. 

Concil. Milevit. 
The Bishop elevated to the Apostolic eminence — St. 

Cyprian, Kp. 3, 12. 
Father of' Fathers — Council of Chalcedon, Sess. iii. 
Sovereign Pontiff of Bishops— Id., in prsef. 
Sovereign Priest — Council of Chalcedon, Sess. xvi. 
Prince of Priests — Stephen, Bishop of Car tinge. 
Prefect of the House of God and Guardian of the 

Lord s Vineyard — Council of Carthage, Ep. to 

Damasus. 

Vicar of Jesus Christ. Confirmer of the Faith of 
Christians — St. Jerome, praef. in Evang. ad Da- 
masum. 

High-Priest — Valentinian, and all antiquity with 
him. 

The Sovereign Pontiff — Council of Chalcedon, in 

Epist. ad Theodos. Imper. 
The Prince of Bishops — Ibid. 

The Heir of the Apostles— St. Bern., lib. de Consid. 
Abraham by the Patriarchate— St. Ambrose, in 1 
Tim iii. 

Melchisedech by ordination — Council of Chalcedon, 
Epist. ad Leonem. 

Moses by authority — St. Bernard, Epist. 190. 

Samuel by jurisdiction— Id. ib., et in lib. de Con- 
sider. 

Peter by power — Ibid. 
Christ bv unction — Ibid. 

The Shepherd of the Fold of Jesus Christ— Id. lib. 

ii. de Consider. 
Key-I?earer of the House of God— Id. ibid. c. viii. 
Th j Shepherd of all Shepherds— Ibid. 
The Pontiff called to the plentitude of power — Ibid. 
St. Peter was the Mouth of Jesus Christ — St. Chry- 

sost. Horn, ii., in Div. Serm. 
The Mouth and Head of the Apostleship — Orig., 

Horn. lv. in Matth. 
The Cathedra and Principal Church— St. Cypr., Ep. 

lv. ad Cornel. 
The Source of Sacerdotal Unity— Id., Epist. iii. 2. 
The Bond of Unity— Id. ibid. iv. 2. 
The Church where resides the chief power (potentior 

principalitas) — Id. ibid. iii. 8. 
The Church the Root and Mother of all the others— 

St. Anaclet. Papa, Epist. ad omnes Episc. et 

Fideles. 

The See on which our Lord has built the Universal 
Church— St. Damasus, Epist. ad Univ. Episcop. 

The Cardinal Point and Head of all the Churches — 
St. Marcellinus, R. Epist. ad Episc. Antioch. 

The Refuge of Bishops— Cone. Alex., Epist. ad 
Felic. P. 

The Supreme Apostolic See— St. Athanasius. 
The Presiding Church— Emperor Justin., in lib. viii., 
Cod. de Sum. Trinit. 



The Supreme See which cannot be judged by any 

other — St. Leo, in Nat. SS. Apost. 
The Church set over and preferred to all the others 

— Victor d'Utiq., in lib. de Perfect. 
The first of all the Sees— St. Prosper, in lib. de In- 
grat. 

The Apostolic Fountain— St. Ignatius, Epist. ad 

Rom. in Subscript. 
The most secure Citadel of all Catholic Communion 
— Council of Rome under St. Gelasius. 

Note 7, p. 45. 
I have said that the most distinguished Pro- 
testants have felt the void which is found in 
all sects separated from the Catholic Church. 
I am about to give proofs of this assertion, 
which perhaps some persons may consider ha- 
zardous. Luther, writing to Zwinglius, said, 
" If the world lasts for a long time, it will be 
again necessary, on account of the different 
interpretations which are now given to the 
Scriptures, to receive the decrees of Councils, 
and take refuge in them, in order to preserve 
the unity of the faith. — Si diutius steterit 
mundus, iterum erit necessarium, propter di- 
versas Scripturse interpretationes quae nunc 
sunt, ad conservandam fidei unitatem, ut con- 
ciliorum decreta recipiamus, atque ad ea con- 
fugiamus." 

Melancthon, deploring the fatal results of 
the want of spiritual jurisdiction, said, " There 
will result from it a liberty useless to the 
world ;" and in another place he utters these 
remarkable words : " There are required in the 
Church inspectors, to maintain order, to ob- 
serve attentively those who are called to the 
ecclesiastical ministry, to watch over the doc- 
trine of priests, and pronounce ecclesiastical 
judgments; so that if bishops did not exist, 
it would be necessary to create them. The 
monarchy of the Pope would be of great utility 
to preserve among such various nations uniform- 
ity of doctrine." 

Let us hear Calvin : " God has placed the 
seat of his worship in the centre of the earth, 
and has placed there only one Pontiff, whom 
all may regard, the better to preserve unity. — 
Cultus sui sedem in medio terras collocavit, illi 
unum Antisticem pra3 fecit, quern omnes respi- 
cerent, quo melius in unitate continerentur." — 
(Calvin, Inst. 6, § 11.) 

"I have also," says Beza, "been long and 
greatly tormented by the same thoughts which 
you describe to me. I see our people wander 
at the mercy of every wind of doctrine, and 
after having been raised up, fall sometimes on 
one side, and sometimes on the other. What 
they think of religion to-day you may know ; 
what they will think of it to-morrow you can- 
not affirm. On what point of religion are the 
Churches which have declared war against the 
Pope agreed 1 Examine all, from beginning to 
end, you will hardly find one thing affirmed by 
the one which the other does not directly cry out 
against as impiety. — Exercuerunt me diu et 
multum illae ipsae quas describis cogitationes. 
Video nostros palantes omni doctrinas vento, 
et in altum sublatos, modo ad hanc, modo ad 
illam partem deferri. Horum, qua? sit hodie 
de religione sententia scire fortasse possis ; sed 
quae eras de eadem futura sit opinio, neque tu 
certo affirmare queas. In quo tandem reli- 
gionis capite congruunt inter se Ecclesiae, quae 
Romano Pontifici bellum indixerunt? A ca- 
pite ad calcem si percurras omnia, nihil prope- 



424 



NOTES. 



modum reperias ab uno affirmari, quod alter 
statim non impium esse clamitet." (Th. Bez. 
Epist. ad Andream Dudit.) 

Grotius, one of the most learned of Protest- 
ants, also felt the weakness of the foundation 
on which the separated sects repose. Many 
people have believed that he died a Catholic. 
The Protestants accused him of having the 
intention of embracing the Roman faith ; and 
the Catholics, who had relations with him at 
Paris, thought the same thing. It is said that 
the celebrated Petau, the friend of Grotius, at 
the news of his death, said mass for him ; an 
anecdote the truth of which I do not guaran- 
tee. It is certain that Grotius, in his work 
entitled Be Antichristo, does not think, with 
other Protestants, that the Pope is Antichrist. 
It is certain that, in his work entitled Votum 
pro Pace Ecclesice, he says, without circumlo- 
cution, "that without the supremacy of the 
Pope, it is impossible to put an end to dis- 
putes ;" and he alleges the example of the 
Protestants : "as it happens," says he, "among 
the Protestants." It is certain that, in his 
posthumous work, Rivetiani Apologetici Dis- 
cussio, he openly lays down the fundamental 
principle of Catholicity, namely, that "the 
dogmas of faith should be decided by tradition 
and the authority of the Church, and not by 
the holy Scriptures only." 

The conversion of the celebrated Protestant 
Papin, which made so much noise, is another 
proof of what we are endeavoring to show. 
Papin reflected on the fundamental principle 
of Protestantism, and on the contradiction 
which exists between this principle and the 
intolerance of Protestants, who, relying only 
on private judgment, yet have recourse to 
authority for self-preservation. He reasoned 
as follows : " If the principle of authority, 
which they attempt to adopt, is innocent and 
legitimate, it condemns their origin, wherein 
they refused to submit to the authority of the 
Catholic Church ; but if the principle of pri- 
vate judgment, which they embraced in the 
beginning, was right and just, this is enough 
to condemn the principle of authority invented 
by them for the purpose of avoiding its ex- 
cesses ; for this principle opens and smooths 
the way to the greatest disorders of impiety." 

Puffendorf, who will certainly not be accused 
of coldness when attacking Catholicity, could 
not help paying his tribute also to the truth, 
when, in a confession for which all Catholics 
ought to thank him, he says, " The suppres- 
sion of the authority of the Pope has sowed 
endless germs of discord in the world : as 
there is no longer any sovereign authority to 
terminate the disputes which arise on all sides, 
we have seen the Protestants split among them- 
selves, and tear their bowels with their own 
hands." (Puffendorf, de Monarch. Pont. Ro- 
man. ) 

Leibnitz, that great man, who, according to 
the expression of Fontenelle, advanced all 
sciences, also acknowledged the weakness of 
Protestantism, and the organizing power which 
belongs to the Catholic Church. We know 
that, far from participating in the anger of 
Protestants against the Pope, he regarded the 
religious supremacy of Pome with the most 
lively sympathy. He openly avows the supe- 
riority of the Catholic over the Protestant mis- 



sions; the religious communities themselves, 

the objects of so much aversion to so many 
people, were to him highly respectable. These 
anticipations with respect to the religious ideas 
of this great man have been more and more 
confirmed by one of his posthumous works, 
published for the first time at Paris in 1819. 
The Exposition of the Doctrine of Leibnitz on 
Religion, followed by Thoughts extracted front 
the writings of the same Author, by M. Emery, 
formerly General Superior of St. Sulpice, con- 
tains the posthumous work of Leibnitz, where- 
of the title, in the original manuscript, is, 
Theological System. The commencement of 
this work, remarkable for its seriousness and 
simplicity, is certainly worthy of the great 
soul of this distinguished thinker. It is this : 
"After having long and profoundly studied 
religious controversies, after having implored 
the divine assistance, and laid aside, as far as 
it is possible for man, all spirit of party, I 
have considered myself as a neophyte come 
from the new world, and one who had not yet 
embraced an opinion ; behold, therefore, the 
conclusions at which I have arrived, and what 
appeared to me, out of all that I have exam- 
ined, worthy to be received by all unprejudiced 
men, as what is most conformable to the holy 
Scriptures and respectable antiquity ; I will 
even say, to right reason and the most certain 
historical facts." 

Leibnitz afterwards lays down the existence 
of God, the Incarnation, the Trinity, and the 
other dogmas of Christianity ; he adopts with 
candor, and defends with much learning, the 
doctrine of the Catholic Church on tradition, 
the sacraments, the sacrifice of the Mass, the 
respect paid to relics and holy images, the 
Church hierarchy, and the supremacy of the 
Pope. He adds, "In all cases which do not 
admit the delay of the convocation of a gen- 
eral Council, or which do not deserve to be 
considered therein, it must be admitted that 
the first of the Bishops, or the Sovereign 
Pontiff, has the same power as the whole 
Church." 

Note 8, p. 49. 

Some persons may suppose that what we 
have said with respect to the emptiness of 
human knowledge and the weakness of our 
intellect, has been said only for the purpose of 
making the necessity of a rule in matters of 
faith more sensibly felt. It is not so. It 
would be easy for me to insert here a long list 
of texts, drawn from the writings of the most 
illustrious men of ancient and modern times, 
who have insisted upon this very point. I will 
only quote here an excellent passage from an 
illustrious Spaniard, one of the greatest men 
of the sixteenth century, Louis Vives. " Jam 
mens ipsa, suprema animi et celsissima pars, 
videbit quantopere sit turn natura sua tarda ac 
prcepedita, turn tenebris peccati cazca, et a doc- 
trina, usu, ac solertia imperita et rudis, ut ne 
ea quidem quai videt, qu&que manibus contrectat, 
cujusmodi sint, aut 'quid Jiant assequatur, nedum 
ut in abdito ilia naturce arcana possit penetrare j 
sapienterque ab Aristotele ilia est posita senten- 
tia : Mentem nostram ad manifestissima natura} 
non aliter habere se, quam noctuaz oculum ad 
lumen solis. Ea omnia, quae universum homi- 



NOTES. 



425 



num genus novit, quota sunt pars eorum quae 
ignoramus ? Nec solum id in universitate ar- 
tium est verum, sed in singulis earum, in 
quarum nulla tantum est humanum ingenium 
progressum, ut ad medium pervenerit, etiam in 
infimis illis ac villissimis ; ut nihil existimetur 
verius esse dictum ab Academicis quam Scire 
nihil." (Ludovic. Vives, de Concordia et Dis- 
cordia, lib. iv. c. iii.) So thought this great 
man, who, to vast erudition in sacred and pro- 
fane things, added profound meditation on the 
human intellect itself ; who followed the pro- 
gress of the sciences with an observant eye, 
and undertook to regenerate them, as his writ- 
ings prove. I regret that I cannot copy his 
words at length, as well those in the passage 
which I have just cited, as those of his im- 
mortal work on the causes of the decline of 
the arts and sciences, and on the manner of 
teaching them. If any one complain that I 
have told some truths as to the weakness of 
our minds, and fear lest this should impede the 
progress of knowledge by checking its flights, 
I will remind him that the best way of promot- 
ing the progress of our minds is, to give them 
a knowledge of themselves. On this point, 
the profound sentence of Seneca may be quot- 
ed : " I know that many persons would have 
attained to wisdom, if they had not presumed 
that they already possessed it." " Puto multos 
ad sapientiam protuisse pervenire, nisi se jam 
crederent pervenisse." 

Note 9, p. 53. 

Dense clouds surround the intellect as soon 
as it approaches the first principles of the 
sciences. I have said that even the mathe- 
matics, the clearness and certainty of which 
have become proverbial, are not exempted from 
this universal rule. The infinitesimal calcula- 
tion, which, in the present state of science, 
may be said to play the leading part, never- 
theless depends on a few ideas which, up to 
this time, have not been well explained by any 
one — ideas with respect to limits. I do not 
wish to throw any doubt on the certainty of 
this calculation : I only wish to show, that, if 
it were attempted to examine the ideas which 
are as it were the elements of it, before the 
tribunal of metaphysical philosophy, the con- 
sequence would be, that shades would be cast 
upon their certainty. Without going further 
than the elementary part of science, we might 
discover some points which would not bear a 
continued metaphysical and ideological analy- 
sis without injury : a thing which it would be 
very easy to prove by example, if the nature 
of this work allowed it. We may recommend 
to the reader on this subject, the valuable 
letter addressed by the Spanish Jesuit, Exim- 
eno, a distinguished philosopher and mathe- 
matician, to his friend, Juan Andres ; he will 
there find some appropriate observations made 
by a man who certainly will not be rejected on 
the ground of incompetency. It is in Latin, 
and is called Epistola ad clarissimum virum 
Joannem Andresium. 

As to the other sciences, it is not necessary 
to say much to prove that their first principles 
are surrounded with darkness ; and it may be 
said that the brilliant reveries of the most 
illustrious men have had no other source than 
this very obscurity. Led away by the feeling 



54 



2 l 2 



of their own strength, these men pursued truth 

even to the abyss ; there, to use the expression 
of an illustrious contemporary poet, the torch 
was extinguished in their hdnds ; lost in an 
obscure labyrinth, they were then abandoned 
to the mercy of their fancies and inspirations ; 
it was thus that reality gave place to the beau- 
tiful dreams of their genius. 

Note 10, p. 54. 
Nothing is better for understanding and ex- 
plaining the innate weakness of the human 
mind, than to survey the history of heresies ; 
a history which we owe to the Church, to the 
extreme care which she has taken to define and 
classify errors. From Simon Magus, who called 
himself the legislator of the Jews, the reno- 
vator of the world, and the paraclete, while 
paying a worship of latria to his mistress 
Helena, under the name of Minerva, down to 
Hermann, preaching the massacre of all the 
priests and all the magistrates of the world, 
and affirming that he was the real son of God; 
a vast picture, very unpleasant to behold, I 
acknowledge, if it were only on account of the 
extravagances with which it abounds, presents 
itself to the observer, and suggests to him 
very grave and profound reflections on the 
real character of the human mind ; there it is 
easy to see the wisdom of Catholicity, in at- 
tempting, in certain cases, to subject this in- 
constant spirit to rule. 

Note 11, p. 57. 
If any persons find difficulty in persuading 
themselves that illusion and fanaticism are, as 
it were, in their proper element among Pro- 
testants, behold the irresistible testimony of 
facts in aid of our assertion. This subject 
would furnish large volumes; but I must be 
content with a rapid glance. I begin with 
Luther. Is it possible to carry raving further 
than to pretend to have been taught by the 
devil, to boast of it, and to found new doc- 
trines on so powerful an authority ? Yet this 
was the raving of Luther himself, the founder 
of Protestantism, who has left us in his works 
the evidence of his interview with Satan. — 
Whether the apparition was real, or produced 
by the dreams of a night agitated by fever, it 
is impossible to carry fanaticism further than 
to boast of having had such a master. Luther 
tells us himself that he had many colloquies 
with the devil ; but what is above all worthy 
of attention is, the vision in which, as he 
relates in the most serious manner, Satan, by 
his arguments, compelled him to proscribe 
private masses. He gives us a lively descrip- 
tion of this adventure. He wakes in the mid- 
dle of the night; Satan appears to him. — 
Luther is seized with horror ; he sweats, he 
trembles ; his heart beats in a fearful manner. 
Nevertheless the discussion begins, and the 
devil, like a good disputant, presses him so 
hard with his arguments, that he leaves him 
without reply. Luther is conquered; which 
ought not to astonish us, since he tells us that 
the logic of the devil was accompanied by a 
voice so alarming, that the blood froze in his 
veins. " I then understood," says this wretch- 
ed being, "how it often happens that people 
die at the break of day ; it is because the devil 



426 



NOTES. 



Is able to kill or suffocate men ; and without 
going so far as that, when he disputes with 
them, he places them in such embarrassment, 
that he can thus occasion their death. I have 
often experienced this myself." This passage 
is certainly curious. 

The phantom which appeared to Zwinglius, 
the founder of Protestantism in Switzerland, 
affords us another example of extravagance no 
less absurd. This heresiarch wished to deny 
the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucha- 
rist ; he pretended that what exists under 
the consecrated species is only a sign. As the 
authority of the sacred text, which clearly ex- 
presses the contrary, embarrassed him, behold, 
suddenly, at the moment when he imagined 
that he was disputing with the secretary of the 
town, a white or black phantom, so he tells us 
himself, appeared to him, and showed him a 
means. This pleasant anecdote we have from 
Zwinglius himself. 

Who does not regret to see such a man as 
Melancthon also given up to the prejudices and 
manias of the most ridiculous superstition, 
stupidly credulous with respect to dreams, ex- 
traordinary phenomena, and astrological prog- 
nostics ? Read his letters, which are filled 
with such pitiful things. At the time when 
the diet of Augsburg was held, Melancthon 
regarded as favourable presages for the new 
gospel an inundation of the Tiber, the birth at 
Rome of a monstrous mule with a crane's foot, 
and that of a calf with two heads in the terri- 
tory of Augsburg, — events which to him were 
the undoubted announcements of a change in 
the universe, and particularly of the approach- 
ing ruin of Rome by the power of schism. He 
himself makes the horoscope of his daughter, 
and he trembles for her because Mars presents 
an alarming aspect; he is not the less alarmed 
at the tail of a comet appearing within the 
limits of the north. The astrologers had pre- 
dicted that in autumn the stars*-would be more 
favorable to ecclesiastical disputes; this prog- 
nostic sufficed to console him for the slowness 
of the conferences of Augsburg on the subject 
of religion : we see, moreover, that his friends 
— that is, the leaders of the party — allowed 
themselves to be ruled by the same powerful 
reasons. As if he had not troubles enough, 
it is predicted that Melancthon will be ship- 
wrecked in the Baltic ; he avoids sailing on 
those fatal waters. Certain Franciscans had 
prophesied that the power of the Pope was 
about to decline, and then to fall for ever ; also 
that, in the year 1600, the Turks were to be- 
come masters of Italy and Germany ; Melanc- 
thon boasts of having the original prophecy in 
his possession ; moreover, the earthquakes 
which occur confirm him in his belief. 

The human mind had but just set itself up 
as the only judge of faith, when the atrocities 
of the most furious fanaticism already inun- 
dated Germany with blood. Mathias Harlem, 
the Anabaptist, at the head of a ferocious troop, 
orders the churches to be sacked, the sacred 
ornaments to be broken in pieces, and all 
books, except the Bible, to be burnt, as impi- 
ous or useless. Establisheu at Munster, which 
he calls Mont Sion, he causes all the gold, 
silver, and precious stones possessed by the 
inhabitants to be brought to him, and places 
them in a common treasury, and names deacons 



to distribute them. All bis discipleB are com- 
pelled to eat in common, to live in perfect 
equality, and to prepare for the war which they 
would have to undertake, quitting Mount Sion, 
as he himself said, to subject all the nations of 
the earth to his power. He at length dies in a 
rash attempt, wherein, like another Gideon, 
he undertook nothing less than to exterminate 
the army of the impious with a handful of 
men. Mathias immediately found an heir to 
his fanaticism in Becold, perhaps better known 
under the name of John of Leyden. This 
fanatic, a tailor by trade, ran naked through 
the streets of Munster, crying out, '.* Behold, the 
king of Sion comes." He returned to his house, 
shut himself up there for three days; and 
when the people came to inquire for him, he 
pretended that he could not speak ; like another 
Zachary, he made signs that he wanted writ- 
ing materials, and wrote that it had been re- 
vealed to him by God, that the people should 
be governed by judges, in imitation of the 
people of Israel. He named twelve judges, 
choosing the men who were the most attached 
to himself ; and until the authority of the new 
magistrates had been acknowledged, he took 
the precaution not to allow himself to be seen 
by any body. Already was the authority of 
the new prophet secured in a certain manner; 
but not content with the real command, he 
desired to surround himself with pomp and 
majesty; he proposed nothing less than to 
have himself proclaimed king. Now the blind- 
ness of the sectarian fanatics was so great, 
that it was not difficult for him to complete his 
mad enterprise ; it was enough for him to play 
off a gross farce. A goldsmith who had an 
understanding with the aspirant to royalty, 
and was also initiated in the art of prophecy, 
presented himself before the judges of Israel, 
and spoke to them thus: " Behold, this is the 
will of the Lord God, the Eternal : as in other 
times I established Saul over Israel, and after 
him David, who was only a simple shepherd, 
so I now establish my prophet Becold king of 
Sion." The judges would not resolve on ab- 
dication ; but Becold assured them that he also 
had had the same vision, that he had concealed 
it from humility, but that God having spoken 
by another prophet, it was necessary for him 
to resign himself to mount the throne, and 
accomplish the orders of the Most High. The 
judges persisted in wishing to call the people 
together ; they assembled in the market-place ; 
there & prophet, on the part of God, presented 
to Becold a drawn sword, as a sign of the 
poicer of justice, ichich was conferred on him 
over all the earth, to extend to the four quarters 
of the world the empire of Sion ; he was pro- 
claimed king with the most boisterous joy, and 
solemnly crowned on the 24th of June, 1534. 
As he had espoused the wife of his predeces- 
sor, he raised her to the royal dignity; but 
while reserving to her the exclusive privilege 
of being queen, he continued to have seven- 
teen wives, in conformity with the holy liberty 
which he had proclaimed in this matter. The 
orgies, assassinations, atrocities, and ravings 
of all kinds which followed cannot be related; 
it may be affirmed that the sixteen months of 
the reign of this madman were only a series 
of crimes. The Catholics cried out against 
such horrible excesses. The Pi otestants cried 



NOTES. 



427 



out also ; but who was to blame ? Was it not 
they who, after having proclaimed resistance i 
to the authority of the Church, had thrown 
the Bible into the midst of these wretched 
men, at the risk of their heads being turned 
by the ravings of individual interpretation, 
and of precipitating them into projects as 
criminal as they were senseless ? The Ana- 
baptists were well aware of this ; and they 
were exceedingly indignant with Luther, who 
condemned them in his writings ; and indeed, 
what right had he, who had established the 
principle, to desire to check its consequences? 
If Luther found in the Bible that the Pope 
was Antichrist, if he arrogated to himself, of 
his own authority, the mission of destroying 
the reign of the Pope, by exhorting all the 
world to conspire against him, why could not 
the Anabaptists say, in their turn, that they had 
intercourse with God, and had received the order 
to exterminate all the icicked, and to establish 
a new kingdom, in which were to be seen only 
wise, pious, and innocent men, having become 
the masters of all things. 

Hermann preaching the massacre of all the 
priests and all the magistrates of the world ; 
David George proclaiming that his doctrine 
alone was perfect, that that of the Old and New 
Testaments was imperfect, and that he was the 
true Son of God ; Nicholas rejecting faith and 
worship a-s useless, treading under foot the 
fundamental precepts of morality, and teaching 
that it icas good to continue in sin, that grace 
might abound; Hacket pretending that the 
spirit of the Messiah had descended upon him, 
and sending two of his disciples to cry out in 
the streets of London, "Behold Christ coming 
here with a vase in his hand !" Hacket him- 
self crying out, at the sight of the gibbet, and 
in the agony of punishment, " Jehovah ! Je- 
hovah ! do you not see that the heavens open, 
and that Jesus Christ comes to deliver me ?" 
are not all these deplorable spectacles, and a 
hundred others that I might mention, proofs 
sufficiently evident that the Protestant system 
nourishes and inflames a fearful fanaticism ? 
Venner, Fox, William Simpson, J. Naylor, 
Count Zinzendorf. Wesley, Baron Swedenborg, 
and other similar names, are sufficient to re- 
mind us of an assemblage of sects so extrava- 
gant, and a series of crimes such as would fill 
volumes, which would afford us the most ridi- 
culous and the most odious pictures, the greatest 
miseries and the most deplorable errors of the 
human mind. I have not invented or exag- 
gerated. Open history, consult authors — I do 
not mean Catholics, but Protestants, or what- 
ever they may be — and you will every where 
find a multitude of witnesses who depose to 
the truth of these facts ; notorious facts, which 
have taken place in the light of day, in great 
capitals, and in times bordering on our own ; 
and let it not be supposed that this abundant 
source of illusion and fanaticism has been 
exhausted in the course of ages ; it does not 
seem that it is yet near being dried up, and 
Europe appears condemned to hear the recital 
of visions, such as those of Baron Swedenborg 
in the inn in London ; and we shall still see 
passports for heaven with three seals given out, 
like those of Johanna Southcote. 



Note 12, p. 60. 
Nothing is more palpable than the difference 
which exists on this point between Protestants 
and Catholics. On both sides there are persons 
who consider themselves to be favored with 
heavenly visions j but these visions render 
Protestants proud, turbulent, and raving mad, 
while among Catholics they increase the spirit 
of humility, peace, and love. Even in that very 
sixteenth century, in which the fanaticism of 
the Protestants agitated and stained Europe 
with blood, there lived in Spain a woman who, 
in the judgment of unbelievers and Protes- 
tants, is certainly one of those who have been 
the most deeply infected with illusion and 
fanaticism ; but has the supposed fanaticism of 
this woman ever caused the spilling of a drop 
of blood, or the shedding of a tear ? Were 
her visions, like those of Protestants, orders 
from heaven for the extermination of men ? 
After the desolate and horrible picture which 
I have given in the preceding note, perhaps 
the reader will be glad to let his eyes rest 
upon a spectacle as peaceful as it is beautiful. 
It is St. Theresa Avriting her own life out of 
pure obedience, and relating to us her visions 
with angelic candor and ineffable sweetness. 
" The Lord (she says) willed that I should once 
have this vision : I saw near to me, on the left 
hand, an angel in a corporeal form ; this is 
what I do not usually see, except hy a prodigy ; 
although angels often present themselves to 
me without my seeing them, as I have said in 
the preceding vision. In this the Lord willed 
that I should see him in the following manner : 
he was not tall, but small and very beautiful, 
his face all in a flame, and he seemed to be one 
of the angels very high in the hierarchy, who 
apparently are all on fire. Without doubt, he 
was one of those who are called seraphim. — 
These angels do not tell me their names ; but 
I clearly see that there is so great a difference 
among the angels, between some and others, 
that I do not know how to express it. I saw 
in his hands a long dart of gold, which ap- 
peared to me to have some fire at the end of 
the point. It seemed to me that the angel 
buried this dart from time to time in my heart, 
and made it penetrate to my bowels, and that 
when withdrawing it, he carried them away, 
leaving me all inflamed with a great love of 
God." ( Vie de St. Therese, c. xxix. no. 11.) 
Another example : "At this moment I see on 
my head a dove very different from those of 
earth ; for this one had no feathers, but wings 
as it were of the shell of mother of pearl, 
which shone brightly. It was larger than a 
dove ; it seemed to me that I heard the noise 
of its wings. It moved them almost for the 
time of an Ave Maria. The soul was already 
in such a condition that, herself swooning 
away, she also lost sight of this divine dove. 
The mind grew tranquil with the presence of 
such a guest, although it seemed to me that so 
wonderful a favor ought to fill it with per- 
turbation and alarm ; but as the soul began to 
enjoy it, fear departed, repose came with en- 
joyment, and the mind remained in ecstacy." 
( Vie, c. xxviii. no. 7.) It would be difficult 
to find any thing more beautiful, expressed in 
more lively colors, and with a more amiable 
simplicity. It will not be out of place to copy 



428 



NOTES. 



here two other passages of a different kind, 
which, while they enforce what we wish to 
show, may contribute to awaken the taste of 
our nation for a certain class of Spanish 
writers, who are every day falling into obliv- 
ion with us, while foreigners seek for them 
with eagerness, and publish handsome editions 
of them. " I was once at office with all the 
rest; my soul was suddenly fixed in attention, 
and it seemed to me to be entirely as a clear 
mirror without reverse or side, neither high 
nor low, but shining every where. In the 
midst of it, Christ our Saviour presented him- 
self to me, as I am accustomed to see Him. 
He appeared to me to be at once in all parts 
of my soul. I saw Him as in a clear mirror, 
and this mirror also (I cannot say how) was 
entirely imprinted on our Lord himself, by a 
communication which I cannot describe — a 
communication full of love. I know that this 
vision has been of great advantage to me every 
time that I recollect it, principally when I 
have just received communion. I was given 
to understand that when a soul is in a state of 
mortal sin, this mirror is covered with great 
darkness, and is extremely obscure, so that our 
Lord cannot appear or be seen therein, although 
He is always present as giving being ; as to 
heretics, it is as if the mirror were broken, 
which is much worse than if it were obscured. 
There is a great difference between seeing this 
and telling it ; it is difficult to make such a 
thing understood. I repeat, that this has been 
very profitable to me, and also very afflicting, 
on account of the view of the various offences 
by which I have obscured my soul, and have 
been deprived of seeing my Lord." ( Vie, c. 
xi. no. 4.) 

In another place she explains a manner of 
seeing things in God ; she represents the idea 
by an image so brilliant and sublime, that we 
appear to be reading Malebranche, when de- 
veloping his famous system. 

" We say that the Divinity is like a bright 
diamond, infinitely larger than the world ; or 
rather like a mirror, as I have said of the soul 
in another vision ; except that here it is in a 
manner so sublime, that I know not how to 
exalt it sufficiently. All that we do is seen in 
this diamond, which contains all in itself; for 
there is nothing which is not comprised in so 
great a magnitude. It was alarming to me to 
see in so short a time so many things assembled 
in this bright diamond ; and I am profoundly 
afflicted every time that I think that things so 
shocking as my sins appeared to me in this 
most pure brightness." ( Vie, c. xl. no. 7.) 

Let us now suppose, with Protestants, that 
all these visions were only pure illusions : at 
least it is evident that they do not pervert ideas, 
corrupt morals, or disturb public order ; and 
assuredly, had they served only to inspire these 
beautiful pages, we should not know how to 
regret the illusion. This is a confirmation of 
what I have said of the salutary effects which 
the Catholic principle produces in souls, by 
preventing them from being blinded by pride, 
or throwing themselves into dangerous courses. 
This principle confines them to a sphere where 
it is impossible for them to injure any one ; but 
it does not deprive them of any of their force 
or energy to do good, supposing that the in- 
spiration is real. Although it would have been 



easy for me to cite a thousand examples, I was 
compelled, for the sake of brevity, to confine 
myself to one, when selecting St. Theresa as 
one of those who are the most distinguished in 
this respect, and because she was contemporary 
with the great aberrations of Protestantism. In 
fine, as she was a daughter of Spain, I seized 
the opportunity of recalling her to the memo- 
ries of Spaniards, who begin too much to forget 
her. 

Note 13, p. 64. 

Some of the leaders of the Reformation have 
left suspicions that they taught with insincerity, 
that they did not themselves believe what they 
preached, and that they had no other object 
than to deceive their proselytes. As I am un- 
willing to have it imputed to me that I have 
made this accusation rashly, I will adduce 
some proofs in support of my assertion. Let 
us hear Luther himself. " Often," he says, 
" do I think within myself that I scarcely 
know where I am, and whether I teach the 
truth or not (Saepe sic mecum cogito, prope- 
modum nescio, quo loco sim, et utrum verita- 
tem doceam, necne)." (Luther, Col. Isleb. de 
Christo.) And it is the same man who said: 
"It is certain that I have received my dogmas 
from heaven. I will not allow you to judge of 
my doctrine, neither you nor even the angels 
of heaven (Certum est dogmata mea habere 
me de ccelo. Non sinam vel vos vel ipsos 
angelos de ccelo de mea doctrina judicare)." 
(Luther, contra Beg. Ang.) John Matthei, the 
author of many writings on the life of Luther, 
and who is not scanty in eulogies on the 
heresiarch, has preserved a very curious anec- 
dote touching the convictions of Luther. It 
is this : " A preacher called John Musa re- 
lated to me that he one day complained to 
Luther that he could not prevail on himself to 
believe what he taught to others : 'Blessed be 
God (said Luther) that the same thing happens 
to others as to myself: I believed till now that 
THAT teas a thing which happened only to me.'" 
(Johann. Matthesius, cone. 12.) 

The doctrines of infidelity were not long de- 
layed ; but would it be believed that they are 
found expressed in various parts of Luther's 
own works ? " It is likely," says he. speaking 
of the dead, "that, except a few. the}- all sleep 
deprived of feeling." " I think that the dead 
are buried in so ineffable and wonderful a sleep, 
that they feel or see less than those who sleep 
an ordinary sleep." " The souls of the dead 
enter neither into purgatory nor into hell." 
" The human soul sleeps ; all its senses buried." 
" There is no suffering in the abode of the 
dead." (" Yerisimile est, exceptis paucis. om- 
nes dormire insensibiles." " Ego puto mortuos 
sic ineffabili et miro somno sopitos, ut minus 
sentiant aut videant, quam hi qui alias dormi- 
unt." "Aninia? mortuorum non ingrediuntur 
in purgatorium nec infernum." " Anima hu- 
mana dormit, omnibus sensibus sepultis." 
"Mortuorum locus cruciatus nullos habet.") 
(Tom. ii. Ep>ist. Lat. Isleb. fol. 44; t. vi. Lat. 
Wittenberg, in cap. ii., cap. xxiii., c. xxv., c. 
xlii. et xlix. Genes, et t. iv. Lat. Wittenberg, 
fol. 109.) Persons were not wanting ready 
to receive such doctrines; and this teaching 
caused such ravages, that the Lutheran Brent- 



NOTES. 



429 



zen, disciple and successor of Luther, hesitates 
not to say: "Although no one among us public- 
ly professes that the soul perishes with the body, 
and that there is no resurrection of the dead, 
nevertheless the impure and wholly profane lives 
which they for the most part lead, show very 
clearly that they do not believe that there is 
another life. Some even allow words of this 
kind to escape them, not only in the intoxication 
of libations, but even ichen fasting, in their fa- 
miliar intercourse. (Et si inter nos nulla sit 
publica professio quod anima simul cum cor- 
pore intereat, et quod non sit mortuoruin 
resurrectio, tamen irupurissima et profanissima 
ilia vita, quam maxima pars hominum sectatur, 
perspicue indicat quod non sentiat vitam post 
hanc. Nonnullis etiam tales voces, tarn ebriis 
inter pocula, quam sobriis in familiaribus col- 
loquiis.)" (Brentius, Horn. 35, in cap. 20, Luc.) 
There were in this same sixteenth century 
some men who cared not to give their names 
to this or that sect, but who professed infidelity 
and scepticism without disguise. We know 
that the famous Gruet paid with his head for 
his boldness in this way; and it was not the 
Catholics who cut it off, but the Calvinists, 
who were offended that this unhappy man had 
taken the liberty to paint the character and 
conduct of Calvin in their true colors. Gruet 
had also committed the crime of posting up 
placards at Geneva, in which he charged the 
pretended reformers with inconsistency, on 
account of the tyranny which they attempted 
to exercise over consciences, after having 
shaken off the yoke of authority on their own 
account. This took place soon after the birth of 
Protestantism, as the sentence on Gruet was 
executed in 1549. 

Montaigne, who has been pointed out as one 
of the first sceptics who acquired reputation in 
Europe, carries the thing so far, that he does 
not even admit the natural law. " They are 
not serious (he says) when, to give some certainty 
to laws, they say that there arc any laws fixed, 
perpetual, and immutable, which they call natu- 
ral, which are impressed on the human race by 
the condition of their peculiar essence." (Mon- 
taigne, Em. 1. ii. c 12.) 

We have already seen what Luther thought 
of death, or at least the expression which 
escaped him on this subject ; and we cannot 
be astonished after that, that Montaigne wished 
to die like a real unbeliever, and that he says, 
speaking of the terrible passage : " / plunge 
my head, insensibly sunk in death, without con- 
sidering or observing it, as in a silent and ob- 
scure depth, which swallows me up at once, 
stifles me in a moment with powerful sleep full 
of insipidity and indolence." (Montaigne, 1. 
iii. e. 9.) But this man, who wished that death 
should find him planting his cabbages, and 
without thinking of it (Je veux que la mort me 
trouve plantant mes ehoux, mais sans me soucier 
d'elle), was not of the same opinion in his last 
moments. When he was near breathing his 
last, he wished that the holy sacrifice of the 
Mass should be celebrated in his apartment, 
and he expired while making an effort to raise 
himself on his bed, in the act of adoring the 
sacred Host. We see that he had profited in 
his heart by some of his ideas with respect to 
the Christian religion. " It is pride," he had 
said, " that leads man out of the common path, 



and urges him to embrace novelties, loving 
rather to be the chief of a wandering and un- 
disciplined band, than to be a disciple of the 
school of truth." In another place, at once 
condemning all the dissenting sects, he had 
said, " In religious matters it is necessary to 
adhere to those who are the established judges 
of doctrine, and who have legitimate authority, 
not to the most learned and the cleverest." 

From all that I have just said, it is clear 
that if I accuse Protestantism of having been 
one of the principal causes of infidelity in 
Europe, I do not accuse it without reason. 
I repeat here, that it is by no means my inten- 
tion to overlook the efforts of some Protestants 
to oppose infidelity ; I do not assail persons, 
but things, and I honor merit wherever I find 
it. In fine, I will add, that if at the end of 
the seventeenth century a considerable number 
of Protestants displayed a tendency towards 
Catholicity, we must seek the reason for it in 
the progress which they saw infidelity making, 
— a progress which it was impossible to check, 
at least without holding fast to the anchor of 
authority which the Catholic Church offered to 
the whole world. I cannot, without exceeding 
the limits which I have marked out for myself, 
give a circumstantial detail of the correspon- 
dence between Molanus and the Bishop of 
Tyna, of Leibnitz and Bossuet. Readers who 
desire to become thoroughly acquainted with 
that affair, may examine it partly in the works 
of Bossuet himself, and partly in the interest- 
ing work of M. de Beausset, prefixed to some 
editions of Bossuet, 

Note 14, p. 86. 

In order to form an idea of the state of 
knowledge at the time of the appearance of 
Christianity, and become convinced that there 
was nothing to be expected from the human 
mind abandoned to its own strength, it is 
enough to recall to mind the monstrous sects 
which every where abounded in the first ages 
of the Church, the doctrines whereof formed 
the most shapeless, extravagant, and immoral 
compound that it is possible to conceive. The 
names of Cerinthus, Menander, Ebion, Satur- 
ninus, Basilides, Nicolas, Carpocrates, Valen- 
tinus, Marcion, Montanus, and so many others, 
remind us of the sects in which delirium was 
connected with immorality. When we throw 
a glance over these philosophico-religious sects, 
we see that they were capable neither of con- 
ceiving a philosophical system with any degree 
of concert, nor of imagining a collection of 
doctrines and practices to which the name of 
religion can be applied. These men overturned, 
mixed, and confounded all ; Judaism, Chris- 
tianity, and the recollections of the ancient 
schools, were all amalgamated in their deluded 
heads ; what they never forgot was, to give a 
loose rein to all kinds of corruption and ob- 
scenity. 

In the spectacle of these ages, a wide field 
is opened to the conjectures of true philosophy. 
What would have become of human knowl- 
edge, if Christianity had not come to enlighten 
the world with her celestial doctrines ; if that 
divine religion, confounding the foolish pride 
of man, had not come to show him how vain 
and senseless were his thoughts, and how far 



480 



NOTES. 



he was removed from the path of truth ? It 
is remarkable that these same men, whose 
aberrations make us shudder, gave themselves 
the name of Gnostics, on account of the 
superior knowledge with which they supposed 
themselves to be endowed. We see that man 
is at all times the same. 

Note 15, p. 115. 

I have thought that it would not be useless 
to transcribe here, word for word, the canons 
which I have mentioned in the text My 
readers may thereby acquire for themselves a 
complete knowledge of what is found there : 
and there will be no room left to suppose that 
the real sense of the regulations has been 
perverted in the extracts which I have given. 

CANONS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS, 

Which show the solicitude of the Church to 
improve the lot of slaves, and the various 
means she has used to accomplish the aboli- 
tion of slavery : 

I L 

A penance is imposed on the mistress who 
maltreats her slave {ancillam). 

(Concilium Eliberitanum, anno 305.) 

"Si qua domina furore zeli accensa flagris 
verberaverit ancillam suam, ita ut in tertium 
diem animam cum cruciatu effundat ; eo quod 
incertum sit, voluntate an casu occiderit : si 
voluntate, post septem annos, si casu, post 
quinquennii tempora. acta legitima pcenitentia. 
ad communionem placuit admitti. Quod si 
infra tempora constituta fuerit infirmata, acci- 
piat communionem." (Canon 5.) 

It must be observed, that the word 1 ancil- 
lam ' means a slave properly so called, and 
not any kind of servant. This appears, indeed, 
from the words flagris verberaverit, which ex- 
press a chastisement reserved for slaves. 

They excommunicate the master who, of his own 
authority, beats his slave to death. 

(Concilium Epaoense, anno 517.) 

" Si quis servum proprium sine conscientia 
judicis occiderit, excommunieatione biennii 
eflFusionem sanguinis expiabit." (Canon 34.) 

This same regulation is repeated in the loth 
canon of the 17th Council of Toledo, held in 
694 ; even the words of the Council of Epaon 
are there copied with very slight change. 

(Ibid.) The slave guilty of an atrocious crime 
was to escape corporeal punishments by taking 
refuge in a church. 

" Servus reatu atroeiore culpabilis si ad ec- 
clesiam confugerit, a corporabilibus tantum 
suppliciis excusetur. De capillis vero, vel 
quocumque opere, placuit, a dominis juramenta 
non exigi." (Canon 39.) 

Very remarkable precautions to prevent masters 
from maltreating the slaves who had taken 
refuge in churches. 

(Concilium Aurelianense quintum, anno 549.) 

" De servis vero, qui pro qualibet culpa ad 
eeclesia? septa confugerint, id statuimus ob- 
servandum, ut, sicut in antiquis constitutioni- 



bus tenetur scriptum, pro concessa culpa datifl 

a domino sacramentis, quisquis ille fuerit, ex- 
pediatur de venia jam securus. Enim vero si 
immemor fidei dominus trascendisse eonvinci- 
tur quod juravit, ut is qui veniam acceperat, 
probetur postmodum pro ea culpa qualicumque 
supplicio cruciatus, dominus ille qui immemor 
fuit data? fidei, sit ab omnium communione 
suspensus. Iterum si servus de promissione 
venia? datis sacramentis a domino jam securus 
exire noluerit, ne sub tali contumacia requirens 
locum fugae. domino fortasse dispereat, egredi 
nolentem a domino eum liceat occupari, ut 
nullam, quasi pro retentatione servi, quibusli- 
bet modis molestiam aut calumniam patiatur 
eeclesia : fidem tamen dominus. quam pro con- 
cessa venia dedit, nulla temeritate transcendat- 
Quod si aut gentilis dominus fuerit, aut alterius 
sects?, qui a conventu ecclesiae probatur ex- 
traneus. is qui servum repetit, personas requirat 
bona? fidei Christianas, ut ipsi in persona 
domini servo praebeant sacramenta : quia ipsi 
possunt servare quod sacrum est, qui pro trans- 
gressione eeclesiastieum metuunt disciplinam." 
(Canon 22.) 

It is difficult to carry solicitude for the lot 
of slaves further. This document is very 
curious. 

They forbid bishops to mutilate their slaves : 
they order that the duty of chastising them 
should be left to the judge of the town, who, 
nevertheless, could not cut off their hair, a 
punishment ichich teas considered too ignomi- 
nious. 

(Concilium Emeri tense, anno 666.) 
"Si regalis pietas pro salute omnium suarum 
legum dignata est ponere decreta, cur religio 
sancta per sancti concilii ordinem non habeat 
instituta. qua? omnino debent esse cavenda? 
Ideoque placuit huic sancto coneilio, ut omnis 
potestas episcopalis modum suae ponat ira? : 
nec pro quolibet excessu cuilibet ex familia, 
eeclesia? aliquod corporis membrorum sua 
ordinatione praesumat extirpare aut auferre. 
Quod si talis emerserit culpa, advocato judice 
civitatis, ad examen ejus deducatur quod fac- 
tum fuisse asseritur. Et quia omnino justum 
est, ut pontifex sa?vissimam non impendat vin- 
dictam : quidquid coram judice verius patuerit, 
per disciplina? severitatem absque turpi decal- 
vatione maneat emendatum." (Canon 15.) 



Priests are forbidden to have their slaves 
mutilated. 

(Concilium Toletanum undecimum, anno 675.) 
" His a quibus domini sacramenta tractanda 
sunt, judicium sanguinis agitare non licet : et 
ideomagnoperetalium excessibus prohibendum 
est, ne indiscreta? pra?sumptionis motibus agi- 
tati, aut quod morte pleetendum est, sententia 
propria judicare praesumant, aut truncationes 
quaslibet membrorum quibuslibet personis aut 
per se inferant, aut inferendas pra?cipiant. 
! Quod si quisquam horum immemor pra?cepto- 
! rum, aut eeclesia? suae familiis, aut in quibusli- 
1 bet personis tale quidfecerit, et concessi ordinis 
t honore privatus, et loco suo, perpetuo damna- 
tionis teneatur religatus ergastulo : cui tamen 
i communio exeunti ex hac vita non neganda 
est, propter domini misericordiam, qui non vult 
' peccatoris mortem, sed ut convertatur et vivat." 
| (Canon 6.) 



NOTES. 



431 



It should be remarked, that the word fami- 
lia. employed in the two last canons which 
we have just cited, should be understood of 
slaves. The real meaning of this word is 
clearly shown us by the 74th canon of the 4th 
Council of Toledo. 

" De familiis ecclesiae constituere presbyte- 

ros et diaconos per parochias liceat ea 

tamen ratione ut antea manumissi libertatem 
status sui percipiant. 

We see this word employed in the same 
sense by Pope St. Gregory. (Epist. xliv. L 4.) 

A penance is imposed on the master who kills 
his slave of his oicn authority. 

(Concilium VVormatiense, anno 868.) 

" Si quis servum proprium sine conscientia 
judicum qui tale quid commiserit, quod morte 
sit dignum, occiderit, excommunieatione vel 
pcenitentia biennii, reatum sanguinis emenda- 
bit" (Canon 38.) 

" Si qua femina furore zeli accensa, flagris 
verberaverit ancillam suam, ita ut intra terti- 
um diem animam suam cum cruciatu efFundat, 
eo quod incertum sit voluntate, an casu occi- 
derit ; si voluntate, septem annos, si casu, per 
quinque annorum tempora legitimam peragat 
poenitentiam." (Canon 39.) 

They check the violence of those who, to revenge 
themselves for the asylum granted to slaves, 
take possession of the goods of the Church. 

(Concilium Arausicanum primum, anno 441.) 
" Si quis autem mancipia clericorum pro 
suis mancipiis ad ecclesiam fugientibus credi- 
derit occupanda, per omnes ecclesias districtis- 
sima damnatione feriatur." (Canon 6.) 

(Ibid.) They check all attempts made against 
the liberty of slaves enfranchised by the 
Church, or who have been recommended to her 
by will. 

u In ecclesia manurnissos, vel per testamen- 
tum ecclesiae commendatos, si quis in servitu- 
tem, vel obsequium, vel ad colonariam conditio- 
nem imprimere tentaverit, animadversione ec- 
clesiastica coerceatur." (Canon 7.) 

They secure the liberty of those who have re- 
ceived the benefit of manumission in the 
Churches. The latter are enjoined to take 
upon themselves the defence of the enfran- 
chised. 

(Concilium quintum Aurelianense, anno 549.) 

1 Et quia plurimorum suggestione comperi- 
mus, eos qui in ecelesiis juxta patrioticam 
consuetudinem a servitiis fuerunt absoluti, pro 
libito quorumcumque iterum ad servitium revo- 
cari, impium esse tractavimus, ut quod in ec- 
clesia Dei consideratione a vinculo servitutis 
absolvitur, irritum habeatur. Ideo pietati.- 
causa communi concilio placuit observandum. 
ut qusecumque mancipia ab ingenuis dominis 
servitute laxantur, in ea libertate maneant. 
quam tunc a dominis perceperunt. Hujus- 
modi quoque libertas si a quocumque pulsata 
fuerit, cum justitia ab ecelesiis defendatur, 
praeter eas culpas, pro quibus leges collatas 
servis revocare jusserunt libertates." (Canon 
7.) 



he Church is charged with the defence of the 
enfranchised, whether they have been emanci- 
pated within her enclosure, whether they have 
been so by letter or testament, or have gained 
their liberty by prescription. They restrain 
the arbitrariness of the judges towards these 
unfortunate persons. It is decided that the 
Bishops shall take cognizance of these causes. 

(Concilium Matisconense secundum, anno 585.) 
" Quae dum postea universo ccetui secundum 
consuetudinem recitata innotescerent, Praetex- 
tatus et Pappulus viri beatissimi dixerunt. 
Decernat itaque, et de miseris libertis vestr® 
auctoritatis vigor insignis, qui ideo plus a ju- 
dicibus affliguntur, quia sacris sunt commendati 
ecelesiis : ut si quas quispiam dixerit contra 
eos actiones habere, non audeat eos magistra- 
te contradere : sed in episcopi tantum judicio, 
in cujus praesentia litem. contestans, qua? sunt 
justitiae ac veritatis audiat. Indignum est 
enim, ut hi qui in sacrosancta ecclesia jure 
noscuntur legitimo manumissi, aut per episto- 
lam, aut per testamentum, aut per longinqui- 
tatem temporis libertatis jure fruuntur, a quo- 
libet injustissime inquietentur. Universa sa- 
cerdotalis Congregatio dixit : Justum est, ut 
contra calumniatorum omnium versutias de- 
fendantur, qui patrocinium immortalis ecclesiae 
concupiscunt Et quicumque a nobis de libertis 
latum decretum, superbia? ausu prgevaricare 
tentaverit, irreparabili damnationis suae sen- 
tentia feriatur. Sed si placuerit episcopo 
I ordinarium judicem, aut quemlibet alium saecu- 
larem, in audientiam eorum accersiri, cum 
| libuerit fiat, et nullus alius audeat causas 
| pertractare libertorum nisi episcopus cujus 
j interest, aut is cui idem audiendum tradiderit." 
(Canon 7.) 

The defence of the freed is confided to the priests. 

(Concilium Parisiense quintum. anno 614.) 

"Liberti quorumcumque ingenuorum a saeer- 
dotibus defensentur, nee ad publicum ulterius 
j revocentur. Quod si quis ausu temerario eos 
j imprimere voluerit, aut ad publicum revocare, 
i et admonitus per pontifieem ad audientiam 
i venire neglexerit, aut emendare quod perpe- 
travit distulerit, communione privetur." (Ca- 
non 5.) 

The enfranchised recommended to the Churches 
shall be protected by the Bishops. 

(Concilium Toletanum tertium, anno 589.) 

" De libertis autem id Dei praecipiunt sacer- 
! dotes, ut si qui ab episcopis facti sunt secundum 
' modum quo canones antiqui dantlicentiam,sint 
liberi : et tantum a patrocinio ecclesia? tarn ipsi 
quam ab eis progeniti non recedant. Ab aliis 
I quoque libertati traditi, et ecelesiis commen- 
j dati, patrocinio episcopali tegantur, a principe 
' hoc episcopus postulet." (Canon 6.) 

1 The Church undertakes to defend the liberty 
and the property acquired by industry of the 
enfranchised who have been recommended to 
her. 

(Concilium Toletanum quartum, anno 633.) 

" Liberti qui a quibuscumque manumissi sunt, 
j atque ecclesias patrocinio commendati existunt, 
i sicut regulae antiquorum patrum constituerunt, 



432 



NOTES. 



sacerdotali defensione a cujuslibet insolentia 
protegantur ; sive in statu libertatis eorum, seu 
in peculio quod habere noscuntur." (Cap. 72.) 

The Church will defend the enfranchised : a re- 
gulation which does not distinguish whether 
they have been recommended to her or not. 

(Concilium Agathense, anno 506.) 

"Libertos legitime a doininis suis factos ec- 
clesia, si neeessitas exegerit, tueatur ; quod si 
quis ante audientiain, aut pervadere, aut expo- 
liare prassumpserit, ab ecclesia repellatur." 
(Canon 29.) 

g III. 

The Church shall regard the ransom of captives 
as her first care ; she shall give their interests 
the preference over her own, however bad may 
be the state of her affairs. 

" Sicut omnino grave est, frustra ecclesiastica 
ministeria venundare, sic iterum culpa est, im- 
minente bujusmodi necessitate, res maxime de- 
solatae Ecclesise captivis suis praeponere, et in 
eorum redemptione cessare." (Caus. xii. q. 2, 
canon 16.) 

Remarkable ivords of St. Ambrose touching the 
ransom of captives. To perform this jjious 
duty, the holy Bishop breaks up and sells the 
sacred vessels. 

(S. Ambrosius de Off. lib ii. cap. 15.) 

(g 70.) " Summa etiam liberalitas captos redi- 
mere, eripere ex hostium manibus, subtrahere 
neci homines, et maxime feminas turpidini, red- 
dere parentibus liberos, parentes liberis, cives 
patriae, restituere. Nota sunt haec nimis II- 
lyriae vastitate et Thraciae : quanti ubique 
venales erant captivi orbe .... 

Ibid, (g 71.) " Praecipua est igitur liberalitas, 
redimere 'captivos et maxime ab hoste barbaro, 
qui nihil deferat humanitatis ad misericordiam, 
nisi quod avaritia reservaverit ad redemp- 
tionem." 

Ib. 1. ii. c. 2 (#13.) " Ut no8 aliquando in 
invidiam incidimus, quod confregerimus vasa 
nystica, ut captivos redimeremus, quod Arianis 
displicere potuerat, nec tarn factum displiceret, 
quam ut esset quod in nobis reprehenderetur." 

These noble and charitable sentiments were 
not those of St. Ambrose only ; his words are 
but the expression of the feelings of the whole 
Church. Without referring to numberless proofs 
which I might adduce here, and before I pass 
to the canons which I mean to insert, I will 
copy some passages from a touching letter of 
St. Cyprian, which contains the motives which 
animated the Church in her pious enterprise, 
and gives a lively description of her zeal and 
charity in these admirable efforts. 

" Cyprianus Januario, Maximo, Proculo, 
Victori, Modiano, Neniesiano, Nampulo, et 
Honorato, fratribus salutem. Cum maximo 
animi nostri gemitu et non sine lacrymis legi- 
mus litteras vestras, fratres carissimi, quas 
ad nos pro dilectionis vestrae sollicitudine de 
fratrum nostrorum et sororum captivitate fe- 
cistis. Quis enim non doleat in ejusmodi 
casibus, aut quis non dolorem fratris sui ' 
suum proprium computet cum loquatur apos- 
tolus Paulus et dicat : Si patitur unum mem- j 



brum, compatiuntur et costera membra : si Ice- 
tatur membrum unum, colloztantur et cuetera 
membra. (1 ad Cor. xii. 26.) Et alio loco : Quia 
infirmatur, inquit, et non ego infirmor ? (2 ad 
Cor. xi. 29.) Quare nunc et nobis captivitas 
fratrum nostra captivitas computanda est, et 
periclitantium dolor pro nostro dolore nume- 
randus est, cum sit scilicet adunationis nostrae 
corpus unum, et non tantum dilectio sed ct 
religio instigare nos debeat et confortare ad 
fratrum membra redimenda. Nam cum denuo 
apostolus Paulus dicat: Nescitis quia templum 
Dei estis, et Spiritus Dei habitat in vobis t (1 
ad Cor. iii. 16), etiamsi charitas nos minus 
adigeret ad opem fratribus ferendam, consider- 
andum tamen hoc in loco fuit, Dei templum 
esse quae capta sunt, nec pati nos longa cessa- 
tione et neglecto dolore debere, ut diu Dei 
templa captiva sint ; sed quibus possumus viri- 
bus elaborare et velociter gerere ut Christum 
judicem et Dominum et Deum nostrum pro- 
mereamur obsequiis nostris. Nam cum dicat 
Paulus apostolus, Quotquot in Christo baptizati 
estis, Christum induistis (ad Gal. iii. 27,) in 
captivis fratribus nostras contemplandus est 
Christus et redimendus de periculo captivitatis, 
qui nos de diaboli faucibus exuit, nunc ipse qui 
manet et habitat in nobis de barbarorum mani- 
bus exuatur, et redimatur nummaria quantitate 
qui nos cruce redemit et sanguine. 



Quantus vero communis omnibus nobis moeror 
atque cruciatus est de periculo virginum quae 
illic tenentur ? pro quibus non tantum liberta- 
tis, sed et pudoris jactura plangenda est, nec 
tarn vincula barbarorum quam lenonum et lu- 
panarium stupra deflenda sunt, ne membra 
Christo dicata etin aeternum continentias hono- 
rum pudica virtute devota, insultantium libidine 
et contagione foedentur ? Quae omnia istic se- 
cundum litteras vestras fraternitas nostra co- 
gitans et dolenter examinans, prompte omnes 
et libenter ac largiter subsidia nummaria fratri- 
bus contulerunt. 



Misimus autem sestertia centum millia num- 
morum, quae istic in ecclesia cui de Domini 
indulgentia praesumus, cleri et plebis apud nos 
consistentis collatione, collecta sunt, quae vos 
illic pro vestra diligentia dispensabitis. 



Si tamen ad explorandam nostri anima chari- 
tatem, et examinandi nostri pectoris fidem tale 
aliquid acciderit, nolite cunctari nuntiare haec 
nobis litteris vestris, pro certo habentes eccle- 
siam nostram et fraternitatem istic universam, 
ne haec ultra fiant precibus orare, si facta 
fuerint, libenter et largiter subsidia praestare." 
(Epist. 60.) 

Thus the zeal for the redemption of captives, 
a zeal which was exerted with so much ardor 
in later ages, had appeared in the earliest times 
of the Church ; this zeal was founded on grand 
and sublime motives, which render this work 
in some measure divine, and secure to those 
who devote themselves to it an unfading crown. 
Important information on this subject will be 
found also in the works of 3t. Gregory. (V. 
lib. iii. ep. 16; lib. iv. ep. 17; lib. vi. ep. 35; 
lib. vii. ep. 26, 28, and 38; lib. ix. ep. 17.) 



NOTES. 



433 



The property of the Church employed for the 
redemption of captives. 
(Concilium Matisconense secundum, anno 585.) 
" Unde statuimus ac decernimus, ut mos 
antiquus a fidelibus reparetur ; et decimas 
ecclesiasticis famulantibus ceremoniis populus 
oninis inferat, quas sacerdotes aut in pauperum 
usuin aut in captivorum redemptionem prazro- 
gantes, suis orationibus pacem populo ac salu- 
tein impetrent : si quis autem conturnax nostris 
statutis saluberrimis fuerit, a membris ecclesia? 
omni tempore separetur." (Canon 5.) 

It is allowed to break up the sacred vessels, in 
order to devote the price of them to the re- 
" demption of captives. 

(Concilium Rhemense, anno 625 Tel. 630.) 

" Si quis episcopus, excepto si evenerit ardua 
necessitas pro redemptione captivorum minis- 
teria sancta frangere pro qualicumque condi- 
tione presumpserit, ab officio cessabit ecclesiae." 
(Canon 22.) 

The following canon informs us that the 
Bishops gave letters of recommendation to the 
captives ; they are desired to state therein the 
date and price of the ransom ; they are re- 
quested also to mention there the wants of those 
who are thus restored to liberty. 

(Concilium Lugdunense tertium, aDno 583.) 

"Id etiam de epistolis placuit captivorum, 
ut ita sint sancti pontifices cauti, ut in servitio 
pontificibus consistentibus qui eorum manu vel 
subscriptione agnoscat epistolae aut quaelibet 
insinuationum litterae dari debeant, quatenus 
de subscriptionibus nulla ratione possit Deo 
propitio dubitari : et epistola commendationis 
pro necessitate cujuslibet promulgate dies da- 
tarum et pretia constituta, vel necessitates 
captivorum quos cum epistolis dirigunt, ibidem 
inserantur." (Canon 2.) 

Excess into which some ecclesiastics allowed 
themselves to fall, by an indiscreet zeal in 
favor of captives. 

(Synodus S. Patricii, Auxilii et Isernini Episcoporum 
in Hibernia celebrata, circa annum Christi 450 vel 
456.) 

" Si quis clericorum voluerit juvare captivo 
cum suo pretio illi subveniat, nam si per furtum 
ilium inviolaverit, blasphemantur multi clerici 
per unum latronem, qui sic fecerit cxcomniu- 
nionis sit." (Canon 32.) 

The church employed her property in the 
ransom of captives ; and when the latter had 
afterwards acquired the means of repaying the 
sums advanced for them, she refused all reim- 
bursement and graciously gave up the price of 
the ransom. 

(Ex epistolis S. Gregorii.) 
" Sacrorum canonum statuta et legalis per- 
mittit auctoritates, lici res ecclesiasticas in j 
redemptionem captivorum impendi. Et ideo, 
quia edocti a vobis sumus, ante annos fere 18, 
virum reverendissimum quemdam Fabium, j 
Episcopum Ecclesiae Eirmanae, libras 11 ar- j 
genti de eadem ecclesia pro redemptione ; 
vestra, ac patris vestri Passivi, fratris et co- 
episcopi nostri, tunc vero clerici, necnon matris 
vestrae, hostibus impendisse, atque ex hoc 
quamdam formidinem vos habere, ne hoc quod 
55 2 J 



datum est, a vobis quolibet tempore repetatur, 
hujus praecepti auctoritate suspicionem ves- 
tram praavidimus auferendam ; constituentes, 
nullam vos exinde, haeredesque vestros quolibet 
tempore repetitionis molestiam sustinere, nec 
a quoquam vobis aliquam objici quaestionem." 
(L. 7, ep. 14, et hab. Cuas. 12, q. 2, c. 15.) 

The property of the Church served to ransom 
captives. 

(Concilium Vernense secundum, anno 844.) 

"Ecclesiae facultates quas reges et reliqui 
christiani Deo voverunt, ad alimentum servo- 
rum Dei et pauperum, ad exceptionem hospi- 
tum, redemptionis captivorum, atque templorum 
Dei instaurationem, nunc in usu saecularium 
detinentur. Hinc multi servi Dei penuriam 
cibi et potus ac vestimentorum patiuntur, 
pauperes consuetam eleemosynam non acci- 
piunt, negliguntur hospites, /raue?an£ur captivi, 
et fama omnium merito laceratur." (Canon 12.) 

Let us observe in this canon the use which 
the Church made of her property ; after having 
supported the clergy, and maintained divine 
worship, she devoted it to succor the poor, 
travellers or pilgrims, and to redeem captives. 
I make this observation here, because the 
opportunity offers ; not because this canon is 
the only proof of the excellent use which the 
Church made of her property. Indeed, a great 
number of others might be cited, beginning 
with the canons called Apostolical. It is ne- 
cessary also to remark the expression which is 
sometimes made use of to stigmatize the wick- 
edness of the spoilers of the Church, or of those 
who administer her property badly ; they are 
called pauperum necatores, 'murderers of the 
poor ;' to make it well understood that one of 
the principal objects of this property is the 
support of the necessitous. 

I IV. 

Those who attempt to take away the liberty of 
persons are excommunicated. 

(Concilium Lugdunense secundum, anno 566.) 

" Et qui peccatis facientibus multi in perni- 
ciem animae suae ita conati sunt, aut conantur 
assurgere, ut animas longa temporis quiete sine 
ulla status sui competitione viventes, nunc 
improba proditione atque traditione, aut cap- 
tivaverint aut captivare conentur, si juxta 
praeceptum domini regis emendare distulerint, 
quousque hos quos obduxerunt, in loco in quo 
longum tempus quiete vixerint, restaurare de- 
beant, ecclesia? communione priventur." (Ca- 
non 3.) 

We see in this canon that private individu- 
als, by too frequent attempts, employed vio- 
lence to reduce free persons to slavery. At 
this time, on account of the irruptions of the 
barbarians, the state of Europe was such, that 
public authority, weak in the extreme, did 
not, properly speaking, exist. This is the rea- 
son why it is so noble to see the Church strug- 
gling every where to support public order, to 
defend liberty, and excommunicating those 
who attacked that liberty, in contempt of the 
commands of the king. 

The same abuse repressed. 
(Concilium Rhemense, anno 625 vel 630.) 
" Si quis ingenuum aut liberum ad servitium 



434 



NOTES. 



inclinare voluerit, aut fortasse jam fecit, et 
commonitus ab episcopo se de inquietudine 
ejus revocare neglexerit, aut emendare noluerit, 
tamquam calumniae reum placuit sequestrari." 
(Canon 17.) 

It is declared that he who leads away a Chris- 
tian to sell him, is guilty of homicide. 
(Concilium Confluentinum, anno 922.) 
"Item interrogatum est, quid de eo faci- 
endum sit qui christianum hominem seduxerit, 
et sic vendiderit : responsumque est ab omni- 
bus, homicidii reatum, ipsum hominem sibi 
contrahere." (Canon 7.) 

The traffic in men, practised at that time in 

England, is proscribed ; it is forbidden to 

sell men like ignoble animals. 

(Concilium Londinense, anno 1102.) 

" Ne quis illud nefarium negotium quo hac- 
tenus in Anglia solebant homines sicut bruta 
animalia venundari, deinceps ullatenus facere 
praesumat." 

We see, from the canon which I have just 
cited, to what point the Church had attained 
in all that affects true civilization. We are in 
the nineteenth century, and it is considered 
that a great step has been gained in modern 
civilization by the consent of the great Euro- 
pean nations to sign treaties to suppress the 
slave-trade ; now the canon which we have 
just cited tells us, that at the beginning of the 
twelfth century, and in that very town of 
London, where the famous Convention was 
lately held, the traffic in men was forbidden, 
and stigmatized as it deserves. Nefarium 
negotium — detestable trade — it is called by 
the Council : infamous traffic, it is called 
by modern civilization, the unconscious heir 
of the thoughts and even the words of those 
men who are treated by it as barbarians, 
of those Bishops, whom calumny has more or 
less represented as a band of conspirators 
against the liberty and happiness of the human 
a'ace. 

It is ordered that persons who have been sold or 
pledged, shall immediately recover their liberty 
by restoring the price received; it is ordained 
that more shall not be required of them than 
they shall have received for their liberty. 

(Synodus incerti loci, circa annum 616.) 

" De ingenuis qui se pro pecunia aut alia 
revendiderint, vel oppignoraverint, placuit ut 
quandoquidem pretium, quantum pro ipsis 
datum est, invenire potuerunt, absque dilatione 
ad statum suae conditionis reddito pretio re- 
formentur, nec amplius quam pro eis datum 
est requiratur. Et interim, si vir ex ipsis, ux- 
orem ingenuam habuerit, aut mulier ingenuum 
habuerit maritum, filii qui ex ipsis nati fue- 
rint, in ingenuitate permaneant." (Canon 14.) 

The text of this Council, held, according to 
some, at Boneuil, well deserves to have some 
remarks made on it. The beneficial regulation 
which allowed a man who had been sold to 
regain his liberty by paying the sum received, 
checked an evil which was deeply rooted in 
the customs of Gaul at that time, for we find 
it at a very early period. We know, indeed, 
from Caesar, whose testimony we have cited in 



the text, that many men of that country sold 
their liberty to relieve themselves from diffi- 
culties. Let us also remark the regulation 
contained in the same canon with respect to 
the children of the person who was sold; 
whether it be the father or mother, the canon 
prescribes, in both cases, that the children 
shall be free; and it here departs from the 
well known rule of civil law : partus sequitur 
ventrem. 

It is forbidden to give up to the Jews the slaves 
who have taken refuge in the churches; it mat- 
ters little whether they have chosen that asylum 
because their masters obliged them to things 
contrary to the Christian faith, or because 
they have been maltreated by them after hav- 
ing been once withdrawn from the sacred asy- 
lum under the pro mise of pardon. 

(Concilium Aurelianense tertium, anno 538.) 
" De mancipiis Christianis, quae in Judasorum 
servitio detinentur, si eis quod Christiana reli- 
gio vetat, a dominis imponitur, aut si eos quos 
de ecclesia excusatos tollent, pro culpa quae 
remissa est, affligere aut csedere fortasse prae- 
sumpserint, et ad ecclesiam iterato confuge- 
rint, nullatenus a sacerdote reddantur, nisi 
pretium offeratur ac detur, quod mancipia ipsa 
valere pronuntiaverit justa taxatio." (Canon 
13.) 

The precept given in the preceding canon is re- 
newed; a precept contained in the canon xohich 
we have just cited. 

(Concilium Aurelianense quartum, anno 541.) 

" Cum prioribus canonibus jam fuerit defini- 
tum ut de mancipiis Christianis, quae apud 
Judaeos sunt, si ad ecclesiam confugerint, et 
redimi se postulaverint, etiam ad quoscumque 
Christianos refugerint, et servire Judaeis nolu- 
erint, taxato et oblato a fidelibus justo pretio, 
ab eorum dominio liberentur, ideo statuimus, ut 
tarn justa constitutio ab omnibus catholicis 
conservetur." (Canon 30.) 

The Jew who perverts a Christian slave is pun- 
ished with the loss of all his slaves. (Ibid.) 

"Hoc etiam decernimus observandum, ut 
quicumque Judaeus proselytum, qui advena di- 
citur, Judaeum facere praesumpserit, aut Chris- 
tianum factum ad Judaicam superstitionem ad- 
ducere; vel si Judaeus Christianam ancillam 
suam sibi crediderit sociandam ; vel si de pa- 
rentibus Christianis natum, Judaeum sub pro- 
missione fecerit libertatis, mancipiorum amis- 
sione mulctetur." (Canon 31.) 

Jews are forbidden to have Christian slaves 
henceforth; as to those who are in their power, 
all Christians are allowed to ransom them by 
paying their Jewish masters twelve solidi. 
(Concilium Matisconense primum, anno 581.) 
"Et liceat quid de Christianis qui aut de 
captivitatis incursu, aut fraudibus Judaeorum 
servitio implicantur, debeat observari, non 
solum canonicis statutis, sed et legum beneficio 
pridem fuerit constitutum : tamen quia nunc 
item quo rumdam querela exorta est, quosdam 
Judaeos, per civitates aut municipia consisten- 
tes, in tantam insolentiam et proterviam pro- 



NOTES. 



435 



rupisse, ut nec reclaniantes Christianos liceat 
vel pretio de eorum servitute absolvi : idcirco 
praesenti concilio, Deo auctore, sancimus, ut 
nullus Christianus Judaeos deineeps debeat de- 
servire ; sed datis pro quolibet bono mancipio 
12 solidis, ipsuin mancipium quicumque Chris- 
tianus, seu ad ingenuitateni, seu ad sei'vitium, 
licentiam habeat redimendi ; quia nefas est, ut 
quos Christus Dominus sanguinis sui effusione 
redemit, perseeutorum vinculis maneant irre- 
titi. Quod si acquiescere his quae statuimus 
quicumque Judaeus noluerit, quamdiu ad pecu- 
niarn constitutam venire distulerit, liceat man- 
cipio ipsi cum Christianis ubicumque voluerit 
habitare. Illud etiam specialiter sancientes, 
quod si quis Judaeus Christianum mancipium 
ad errorem Judaicum convictus fuerit suasisse, 
ut ipse mancipio careat, et legandi damnatione 
plectatur." (Canon 16.) 

The preceding canon is almost equivalent to 
a decree for the entire emancipation of Chris- 
tian slaves ; for if, on the one hand, Jews were 
forbidden to acquire new Christian slaves, and, 
on the other, those who were in their posses- 
sion could be redeemed by the first Christian 
who came, it is clear that the charity of the 
faithful thus finding a door open to it, the 
number of Christian slaves who groaned in the 
power of the Jews must have diminished in an 
extraordinary manner. It is not said that 
these canonical regulations of the Church from 
the first moment obtained all the result which 
was intended ; but, as she was the only power 
that remained standing at that time, and the 
only one that exercised influence on the na- 
tions, it cannot be doubted that her regulations 
were infinitely advantageous to those in whose 
favor they were established. 

Jews are forbidden to acquire Christian slaves. 
If a Jew perverts to Judaism, or circumcises 
a Christian slave, the latter becomes free with- 
out having any thing to pay to his master. 

(Concilium Toletanum tertium, anno 589.) 

" Suggerente concilio, id gloriossimus domi- 
nus noster canonibus inserendum praecipit, ut 
Judaeis non liceat Christianas habere uxores, 
neque mancipia comparare in nsiis proprios. . . 

" Si qui vero Christiani ab eis Judaico ritu 
sunt maculati, vel etiam circumcisi, non reddito 
pretio ad libertatem et religioneni redeant 
Christianam." (Canon 14.) 

This canon is remarkable, both because it 
protects the conscience of the slave, and im- 
poses on masters a punishment favorable to 
liberty. This manner of checking the arbi- 
trary power of those who violated the con- 
sciences of their slaves, is found, during the 
following century, in a curious example con- 
tained in the collection of the laws of Ina, 
queen of the West Saxons. It is this : 

If a master makes his slave work on Sunday, 
the slave becomes free. 

(Leges YnaereginasSaxonum Occiduorum, anno 692.) 

** Si servus operetur die dominica per prse- 
ceptuin domini sui, sit liber." (Leg. iii.) 



Another curious example : 
If a master gives meat to a slave on a fasting- 
day, the slave becomes free. 
(Concilium Berghamstedae anno 5° Withredi regis 

Cantii, id est Christi 697 : sub Bertualdo Cantuari- 

ensi archiepiscopo celebratum. Haec sunt judicia 

Withredi regis Cantuariorum.) 

" Si quis servo suo carnem in Jejunio dedi- 
derit coniedendam, servus liber exeat." (Canon 
15.) 

It is definitively forbidden for Jews to have 
Christ ian slaves j all contravention of this 
order shall deprive the Jews of all their 
slaves, who shall obtain their liberty from the 
prince. 

(Concilium Toletanum quartum, anno 633.) 
" Ex decreto gloriosissimi principis hoc sanc- 
tum elegit concilium, ut Judaeis non liceat 
Christianos servos habere, nec Christiana man- 
cipia emere, nec cujusquam consequi largitate : 
nefas est enim ut membra Christi serviant An- 
tichristi ministris. Quod si deineeps servos 
Christianos, vel ancillas Judaei habere prse- 
sumpserint, sublati ab eorum dominatu liber- 
tatem a principe consequantur." (Canon 66.) 

It is forbidden to sell Christian slaves to Jews 

or Gentiles; if such sales have been made, 

they shall be annulled. 

(Concilium Khemense, anno 625.) 

" Ut Christiani Judaeis vel Gentilibus non 
vendantur; et si quis Christianorum necessi- 
tate cogente mancipia sua Christiana elegerit 
venundanda, non aliis nisi tantum Christianis 
expendat. Nam si paganis aut Judaeis vendi- 
derit, communione privetur, et emptio careat 
firmitate." (Canon 11.) 

No precaution was too great in those unhap- 
py times. It might appear at first that such 
regulations were an effect of the intolerance 
of the Church with respect to the Jews and 
Pagans ; and yet, in reality, they were a bar- 
rier against the barbarism which invaded all ; 
they were a guarantee of the most sacred 
rights of man ; so much the more necessary, 
as all the others, it may be said, had disap- 
peared. Read the document which we are 
about to transcribe ; you will there see that 
barbarism was carried so far, that slaves were 
sold to the Pagans to be sacrificed. 

(Gregorius Papa III. ep. ad Bonifacium Archiepisco- 
pum, anno 731.) 

" Hoc quoque inter alia crimina agi in par- 
tibus illis dixisti, quod quidam ex fidelibus ad 
immolandum paganis sua venundent mancipia. 
Quod ut magnopere corrigere debeas, frater, 
commonemus, nec sinas fieri ultra; scelus est 
enim et impietas. Eis ergo qui haec perpetra- 
verunt, similem homicidae indices pceniten- 
tiam." 

These excesses must have occupied the ac- 
tive attention of the Church, as we see the 
Council of Liptines, held in 743, again insist 
on this point, and forbid Christian slaves to be 
given up to the Gentiles. 

"Et ut mancipia Christiana paganis non 
tradantur." (Canon 7.) 



436 



NOTES. 



It is forbidden to sell a Christian slave out of 
the territory comprised vrithin the kingdom of 
Glovis. 

(Concilium Cabilonense, anno 650.) 
" Pietatis est inaxiinae et religionis intuitus, 
ut captivitatis vinculum omnino a Christianis 
redimatur. Uncle sancta Synodus noscitur cen- 
suisse, ut nullus mancipium extra fines vel ter- 
minos, qui ad regnum domini Clodovei regis 
pertinent, debeat venundare, ne quod absit, 
per tale commercium, aut captivitatis vinculo, 
vel quod pejus est, Judaica servitute mancipia 
Christiana teneantur implicita." (Canon 9.) 

This canon, which forbids the selling of Chris- 
tian slaves out of the kingdom of Clovis, for 
fear that they should fall into the power of the 
Pagans and Jews, and the other of the Council 
of Rheims, cited above, which contains a simi- 
lar regulation, are worthy of remark, under 
two aspects ; they show, 1st, the high respect 
which we ought to have for the soul of man, 
even of him who is a slave, since it is forbidden 
to sell him where his conscience might be in 
danger : a respect which it was very important 
to maintain, both in order to eradicate the er- 
roneous maxims of antiquity on this point, 
and because it was the first step towards eman- 
cipation. 2d. By limiting the power of sale, 
there was introduced into that kind of 2>roperty 
a law which distinguished it from others, and 
placed it in a different and more elevated cate- 
gory. This was a great step made towards 
declaring open Avar against this property itself, 
and abolishing it by legitimate means. 
Clerics ivho sold their slaves to Jews are severely 
reproved: they are threatened with alarming 
punishments. 

(Concilium decimum Toletanum, anno 656.) 
" Septimae collationis immane satis et infan- 
dum operationis studium nunc sanctum nostrum 
adiit concilium ; quod plerique ex sacerdotibus 
et levitis, qui pro sacris ministeriis, et pietatis 
studio, gubernationisque augmento sanctse ec- 
clesiee deputati sunt officio, malunt imitari tur- 
bam nialorum, potius quam sanctorum patrum 
insistere ma.ndatis : ut ipsi etiam qui redimere 
debuerunt, venditiones facere intendant, quos 
Christi sanguine prassciunt esse redernptos ; ita 
duntaxat, ut eorum dominio qui sunt empti in 
ritu Judaismo convertantur oppressi, et fit exe- 
crabile commercium, ubi nitente Deo justum 
est sanctum adesse conventum ; quia majorum 
canones vetuerunt ut nullus Judaeorum conju- 
gia vel servitia habere prassumat de Christi- 
anorum coetu." 

Here the Council eloquently reprimands the 
guilty ; it continues : 

" Si quis enim post hanc definitionem talia 
agere tentaverit, noverit se extra ecclesiam 
fieri, et prajsenti, et futuro judicio cum Juda 
simili poena percelli, dum modo Dominum 
denuo proditionis pretio malunt ad iracundiam 
provocare." (Canon 7.) 

gVI. 

Pope St. Gregory the First gives freedom to 
two slaves of the Church of Rome. Rema rkable 
passage, in which this holy pope explains the 
motives which induced the Christians to enfran- 
chise their slaves. 

" Cum Redemptor noster totius conditor crea- 
turse ad hoc propitiatus humanam voluerit car- 



nem assumere, ut divinitatis suae gratia, diruto 
quo tenebamur captivi vinculo servitutis, pristi- 
nae nos restitueret libertati,- salubriter agiter, 
si homines quos ab initio natura creavit liberos 
et protulit, et jus gentium jugo substituit ser- 
vitutis, in ea natura in qua nati fuerant, manu- 
mittentis beneficio, libertati reddantur. Atque 
ideo pietatis intuitu, et hujus rei consideratione 
permoti, vos Montanam atque Thomain fa- 
mulos sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae, cui Deo adju- 
tore deservimus, liberos ex hac die civesque 
Romanos efficimus, omneque vestrum vobis 
relaxamus servitutis peculium." (S. Greg. 1. 
v. ep. 12.) 

Bishops are directed to respect the liberty of 
those who have been enfranchised by their 
predecessors. Mention is made of the power 
given to Bishops to free their slaves who deserve 
well, and the sum is fixed which they may give 
them to aid them in living. 

(Concilium Agathense, anno 506.) 
" Sane si quos de servis ecclesiae benemeritos 
sibi episcopus libertate donaverit, collatam 
libertatein a successoribus placuit custodiri, 
cum hoc quod eis manumissor in libertate con- 
tulerit. quod tamen jubemus viginti solidorum 
numerum, et modum in terrula, vineola, vel 
hospitiolo tenere. Quod amplius datum fuerit, 
post manumissoris mortem ecclesia rcvocabit." 
(Canon 7.) 

What has been mortaged or alienated from the 
property of the Church by a Bishoj) u)ho has 
left nothing of his oicn, must be restored ; but 
enfranchised slaves are excepted from this 
rule : they shall preserve their liberty. 
(Concilium Aurelianense quartum, anno 541.) 
" Ut episcopus qui de facultate propria eccle- 
siae nihil relinquit, de ecclesiae facultate si quid 
aliter quam canones eloquunter obligaverit, 
vendidevit, aut distraxerit, ad ecclesiam revo- 
cetur. Sane si de servis ecclesia; libertos fecerit 
numero competenti, in ingenuitate permaneant, 
: ita ut ab officio ecclesiae non recedant." (Ca- 
] non 9.) 

An English Council ordains that, at the death 
of each Bishop, all his English slaves shall be 
i freed. The solemnization of the obsequies is 
regulated ; to terminate the funeral ceremonies, 
each Bishop and abbot shall enfranchise three 



slaves, by giving them each three solidi. 
(Synodus Cellichytensis, anno 816.) 
"Decimo jubetur, et hoc firmiter statuimus 
asservandum, tarn in nostris diebus, quamque 
etiam futuris temporibus, omnibus successori- 
bus nostris qui post nos illis sedibus ordinentur 
quibus ordinati sunius : ut quandocumque ali- 
quis ex numero episcoporum migraverit de 
saeculo, hoc pro anima illius praecipimus, ex 
substantia uniuscumque rei decimam partem 
dividere, ac distribuere pauperibus in elee- 
mosynam, sive in pecoribus, et armentis, seu 
de ovibus et porcis, vel etiam in cellariis, 
nee nom omnem hominem Anglicum liberare, qui 
in diebus suis sit servituti subjectus, ut per illud 
sui proprii laboris fructum retributionis per- 
cipere mereatur, et indulgentiam peccatorum. 
Nec ullatenus ab aliqua persona huic capitulo 
contradicatur, sed magis, prout condecet, a 
successoribus augeatur, et ejus memoria semper 
in posterum per universas ecclesias nostrae 



NOTES. 



437 



ditioni subjeetas cum Dei laudibus babeatur et 
honoretur. Prorsus orationes et eleemosynas 
quae inter nos specialiter condictam habemus, 
id est, ut statim per singulas parochias in 
singulis quibusque ecclesiis, pulsato signo, oni- 
nis faniuloruin Dei ccetus ad basilicam conve- 
niant, ibique pariter xxx psalmos pro defunct! 
animas decantent. Et postea unusquisque antis- 
tes et abbas sexcentos psalmos, et centum vi- 
ginti missas celebrare faciat, et tres homines 
liberet et eorum cuilibet tres solidos distribuat." 
(Canon 10.) 

A curious document, which shows the generous 
resolution made by the Council of Armagh 
in Ireland, to give liberty to all the English 
sla res. 

(Concilium Ardamachiense in Hibernia celebratum, 
anno 1171 : ex Giraldo Cambrensi, cap. xxviii. 
Hiberniae expugnatae.) 

"His completis convocato apud Ardama- 
chiam totius Hiberniae clero, et super advena- 
rum in insulam adventu tractato diutius et 
deliberato, tandem communis omnium in hoc 
sententia resedit : propter peccata scilicet po- 
puli sui. eoque praecipue quod Anglos olim, tam 
a mereatoribus, quam praedonibus atque piratis, 
emere passim, et in servitutem redigere con- 
sueverant, divinae censura vindictae hoc eis 
incommodum accidisse, ut et ipsi quoque ab 
eadem gente in servitutem vice reciproca jam 
redigantur. Anglorum namque populus adhuc 
integro eorum regno, communi gentis vitio, 
liberos suos venales exponere, et priusquam 
inopiam ullam aut inediam sustinerent, filios 
proprios et cognatos in Hiberniam vendere 
consueverant. Unde et probabiliter credi po- 
test, sicut venditores olim, ita et emptores, tam 
enormi delicto juga servitutis jam ineruisse. 
Dec-return est itaque in prosdicto concilio, et 
cum universitatis consensu publico statutum, 
ut Angli ubique per insulam, servitutis vinculo 
mancipati, in pristinam revocentur libertatem." 

It is thus that religious ideas influence and 
soften the ferocious manners of nations. When 
a public calamity occurs, they immediately find 
its cause in the divine anger, justly excited by 
the traffic which the Irish carried on by buy- 
ing English slaves of merchants, robbers, and 
pirates. It is not less curious to learn, that at 
th;it time the English were barbarous enough 
to sell their children and relations, like the 
Africans of our days. This frightful custom 
must have been pretty general, as we read in 
the passage quoted, that it was the common 
vice of those nations: communi gentis vitio. 
This makes us better understand the necessity 
of a regulation inserted above, that of the 
Council of London, held in 1102, which pro- 
scribes this infamous traffic in men. 

It is forbidden to change the slaves of the Church 
for other slaves, unless the exchange procured 
their liberty. 

(Ex concilio apud Sylvanectum, anno 864.) 
"Mancipia ecclesiastica, nisi ad libertatem 
non convenit commutari ; videlicet ut mancipia, 
qua? pro ecclesiastico homine dabuntur, in ec- 
clesias servitute permaneant, et ecclesiasticus 
homo, qui commutatur, fruatur perpetua liber- 
tate. Quod enim semel Deo consecratum est, 
ad humanos usus transferri non decet." (V. 
Decret. Greg. IX., 1. iii. tit. 19, cap. 3.) 

2 



A Canon containing the same regulation as the 
preceding; and whence, moreover, it appears, 
that the faithful, for the salvation of their 
souls, were accustomed to offer their slaves to 
God and the Saints. 

(Ex eodem, anno 864.) 
"Injustuni videtur et impium, ut mancipia, 
quae fideles Deo et Sanctis ejus pro remedio 
animae suae consecrarunt, cujuscumque muneris 
mancipio, vel commutationis commercio iterum 
in servitutem secularium redigantur, cum ca- 
nonica auctoritas servos tantummodo permittat 
distrain fugitivos. Et ideo ecclesiarum rectores 
summopere caveant, ne eleemosyna unius, alte- 
rius peccatum fiat. Et est absurdum, ut ab 
ecclesiastica dignitate servus discedens, hu- 
manae sit obnoxius servituti." (Ibid. cap. 4.) 

Freedom shall be granted to slaves ivho wish to 
embrace the monastic state, yet without ne- 
glecting useful precautions to ascertain the 
reality of their vocation. 
(Concilium Romanum sub S. Gregorio I., anno 597.) 

" Multos de ecclesiastica seu sseeulari familia, 
novimus ad omnipotentis Dei servitium festi- 
nare, ut ab humana servitute liberi in divino 
servitio valeant familiarius in monasteriis con- 
versari, quos si passim dimittimus, omnibus 
fugiendi ecclesiastici juris dominium occasio- 
nem praebemus : si vero festinantes ad omnipo- 
tentis Dei servitium, incaute retinemus, illi 
invenimur negare quasdarn qui dedit omnia. 
Unde necesse est, ut quisquis ex juris ecclesi- 
astici vel saecularis militias servitute ad Dei 
servitium convert! desiderat, probetur prius in 
laico habitu constitutus : et si mores ejus atque 
conversatio bona desiderio ejus testimonium 
ferunt, absque retractatione servire in monas- 
terio omnipotenti Domino permittatur, ut ab 
humano servitio liber recedat, qui in divino 
obsequio districtiorem appetit servitutem." (S. 
Greg, epist. 44. lib. iv). 

The abuse of ordaining slaves without the con- 
sent of their masters had spread ; this abuse 
is checked. 

(Ex epistolis Gelasii Papae.) 
" Ex antiquis regulis et novella synodali ex- 
planatione comprehensum est, personas ob- 
noxias servituti, cingulo coelestis militia? non 
prascingi. Sed nescio utrum ignorantia an 
voluntate rapiamini, ita tit ex hae causa nullus 
pene Episcoporum videatur extorris. Ita enim 
nos frequens et plurimorum querela nos cir- 
cumstrepit, ut ex hac parte nihil penitus pute- 
tur constitutum." (Distin. 54. c. 9.) 

" Frequens equidem, et assidua nos querela 
circumstrepit de his pontificibus, qui nec anti- 
quas regulas nec decreta nostra noviter directa 
cogitantes, obnoxias possessionibus obligatas- 
que personas, venientes ad clericalis officii 
cingulum non recusant." (Ibid. c. 10.) 

"Actores siquidem filia? nostras illustris et 
magnificas feminae, Maximae, petitorii nobis 
insinuatione conquest! sunt, Sylvestrum atque 
Candidum, origin arios suos, contra constitu- 
tiones, quae supradictae sunt, et contradictione 
praseunte a Lucerino Pontifice diaconos ordi- 
natos." (Ibid c. 11.) 

" Generalis etiam querelas vitanda prcesump- 
j tio est, qua propemodum causantur universi } 

m2 



438 



NOTES. 



passim servos et originarios, dominorum jura, 
possessionuinque fugientes, sub religiosae con- 
versationis obtentu, vel ad monasteria sese 
eonferre, vel ad ecclesiasticum famulatum, con- 
niventibus quippe praesulibus, indifferenter 
admitti. Quae modis omnibus est amovenda 
pernicies, ne per Cbristiani nominis institutum 
aut aliena pervadi, aut publica videatur dis- 
ciplina subverti." (Ibid. c. 12.) 

The parish priests are allowed to choose some 
clerics from the slaves of the Church. 
(Concilium Emeritense, anno 666.) 
" Quidquid unanimiter digne disponitur in 
sancta Dei ecclesia, necessarium est ut a paro- 
chitanis presbyteris custoditum maneat. Sunt 
enim nonnulli, qui ecclesiarum suarum res ad 
plenitudinem habent, et sollicitudo illis nulla 
est habendi clericos, cum quibus omnipotenti 
Deo laudum debitapersolvant officia. Proinde 
instituit haec sancta synodus, ut omnes paro- 
chitani presbyteri, juxta ut in rebus sibi a Deo 
creditis sentiunt habere virtutem, de ecclesiae 
suae familia clericos sibi faciant; quos per 
bonam voluntatem ita nutriant, ut et omcium 
sanctum digne paragant, et ad servitium suum 
aptos eos habeant. Hi etiam victuni et vesti- 
tum dispensatione presbyteri merebuntur, et 
domino et presbytero suo, atque utilitati eccle- 
siae fideles esse debent. Quod si inutiles appa- 
ruerint ut culpa patuerit, correptione disciplinae 
feriantur ; si quis presbyterorum hanc senten- 
tiam minime custodierit, et non adimpleverit, 
ab episcopo suo corrigatur : ut plenissime cus- 
todiat, quod digne jubetur." (Canon 18.) 

It is prescribed to the Bishops to confer liberty 
on the slaves of the Church before they admit 
them into the clerical body. 

(Concilium Toletanum nonum, anno 655.) 
" Qui ex familiis ecclesiae servituri devocan- 
tur in clerum ab episcopis suis, necesse est, ut 
libertatis percipiant donum : et si honestae vitae 
claruerint meritis, tunc demum majoribus fun- 
gantur omciis. (Canon 11.) 

It is allowed to ordain the slaves of the Church, 
liberty having been previously conferred on 
them. 

(Concilium quartern Toletanum, anno 633.) 
" De familiis ecclesiae constituere presbyteros 
ut diaconos per parochias liceat; quos tamen 
vitae rectitudo et probitas morum commendat : 
ea tamen ratione, ut antea manumissi liberta- 
tem status sui percipiant, et denuo ad ecclesias- 
ticos honores succedant; irreligiosum est enim 
obligatos existere servituti, qui sacri ordinis 
suscipiunt dignitatem." 

I VII. 

We have shown in the text by what means, 
with what wisdom and perseverance Christian- 
ity abolished slavery in the ancient world; 
Christian and Catholic Europe was free at the 
time when Protestantism appeared. Let us 
now see what Catholicity has done in modern 
times, with respect to slaves in other parts of 
the world. We can present to our readers in 
one document, which is the evidence of the 
ideas and feelings of the Sovereign Pontiff 
Gregory XVI., an interesting history of the 



solicitude of the Roman See in favor of the 
slaves of the whole universe. I mean the 
apostolical letters published at Rome, Novem- 
ber 3, 1839, against the slave-trade ; and I 
recommend the perusal of them. It will be 
there seen, in the most authentic and decisive 
manner, that the Catholic Church, on this im- 
portant subject of slavery, has always showed, 
and shows still, the most lively spirit of charity, 
without in the least offending against justice, 
or for a moment departing from the path of 
prudence. 

" Gregorius P. P. XVI. ad futuram rei me- 
moriam. 

" Raised to the supreme degree of the apos- 
tolical dignity, and filling, although without 
any merit on our part, the place of Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, who, by the excess of 
His charity, has deigned to become man, and 
die for the redemption of the world ,• we con- 
sider that it belongs to our pastoral solicitude 
to exert all our efforts to prevent Christians 
from engaging in the trade in blacks or any 
other men, whoever they may be. 

"As soon as the light of the Gospel began 
to spread, the unfortunate men who fell into 
the hard fate of slavery during the numerous 
wars of that period, felt their condition im- 
proved ; for the apostles, inspired by the Spirit 
of God, on the one hand, taught slaves to obey 
their earthly masters, as Jesus Christ Himself, 
and to be resigned from the bottom of their 
heart to the will of God; but, on the other, 
they commanded masters to behave well to 
their slaves, to grant them what was just and 
equitable, and not to treat them with anger, 
knowing that the Lord of both is in heaven, 
and that with Him there is no distinction of 
persons. 

" The law of the Gospel having very soon 
universally and fundamentally ordained sincere 
charity towards all, and the Lord Jesus having 
declared that He would regard as done or re- 
fused to Himself all the acts of beneficence 
and mercy done or refused to the poor and 
little ones — it naturally followed that Chris- 
tians not only regarded their slaves as brethren, 
above all when they were become Christians, 
but that they were more inclined to give liberty 
to those who rendered themselves worthy of 
it. This usually took place particularly on 
the solemn feasts of Easter, as St. Gregory of 
Nyssa relates. There were even found some 
who, inflamed with more ardent charity, em- 
braced slavery for the redemption of their 
brethren ; and an apostolic man, our predeces- 
sor, Pope Gregory I., of sacred memory, attests 
that he had known a great many who perform- 
ed this work of mercy. Wherefore the dark- 
ness of Pagan superstition being entirely dis- 
sipated in the progress of time, and the 
manners of the most barbarous nations being 
softened, — thanks to the benefit of faith work- 
ing by charity, — things advanced so far, that 
for many centuries there have been no slaves 
among the greater part of Christian nations. 
Yet (we say it with profound sorrow) men have 
been since found, even among Christians, who, 
shamefully blinded by the desire of sordid 
gain, have not hesitated to reduce into slavery, 
in distant countries, Indians, Negroes, and 



NOTES. 



439 



other unfortunate races; or to assist in this 
scandalous crime, by instituting and organizing 
a traffic in these unfortunate beings, who had 
been loaded with chains by others. A great 
number of the Roman Pontiffs, our predeces- 
sors of glorious memory, have not forgotten to 
stigmatize, throughout the extent of their 
jurisdiction, the conduct of these men as in- 
jurious to their salvation, and disgraceful to 
the Christian name; for they clearly saw that 
it was one of the causes which tended most 
powerfully to make infidel nations continue in 
their hatred to the true religion. 
"This was the object of the apostolical letters 
of Paul III., of the 29th of May, 1537, ad- 
dressed to the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, 
under the ring of the fisherman, and other 
letters, much more copious, of Urban VIII., 
of the 22d April, 1639, addressed to the col- 
lector of the rights of the Apostolic Chamber 
in Portugal, — letters, in which the most severe 
censures are cast upon those who venture to 
reduce the inhabitants of the East or West 
Indies into slavery, buy, sell, give, or exchange 
them, separate them from their wives and 
children, strip them of their property, take or 
send them into strange places, or deprive them 
of their liberty in any way ; to retain them in 
slavery ; or aid, counsel, succor, or favor those 
who do these things under any color or pre- 
tence whatever ; or preach or teach that this 
is lawful, and, in fine, co-operate therewith in 
any way whatever. Benedict XIV. has since 
confirmed and renewed these pontifical ordi- 
nances before mentioned by new apostolical 
letters to the Bishops of Brazil and some other 
countries, dated the 20th December, 1741, by 
means of which he calls forth the solicitude of 
the Bishops for the same purpose. A long 
time before, another of our more ancient pre- 
decessors, Pius II., whose pontificate saw the 
empire of the Portuguese extended in Guinea 
and in the country of the blacks, addressed 
letters, dated the 7th of October, 1482, to the 
Bishop of Ruvo, who was ready to depart for 
those countries : in these letters he did not 
confine himself to giving to this prelate the 
means requisite for exercising the sacred min- 
istry in those countries with the greatest fruit, 
but he took occasion very severely to blame 
the conduct of those who reduced the neo- 
phytes into slavery. In fine, in our days, Pius 
VII., animated by the same spirit of charity 
and religion as his predecessors, zealously in- 
terposed his good offices with men of authority 
for the entire abolition of the slave-trade 
among Christians. 

"These ordinances, and this solicitude of our 
predecessors, have availed not a little, with the 
aid of God, in defending the Indians, and other 
nations who have just been mentioned, against 
the barbarity of conquest, and the cupidity of 
Christian merchants ; but the Holy See is far 
from being able to boast of the complete suc- 
cess of its efforts and zeal, for, if the slave- 
trade has been partially abolished, it is still 
carried on by a great many Christians. Where- 
fore, desiring to remove such a disgrace from 
all Christian countries, after having maturely 
considered the matter with many of our vene- 
rable brethren, the Cardinals of the Holy 
Roman Church, assembled in Council, following 
the example of our predecessors, by virtue of 



the apostolic office, we warn and admonish in 
the Lord all Christians, of whatever condition 
they may be, and enjoin upon them that, for 
the future, no one shall venture unjustly to 
oppress the Indians, Negroes, or other men, 
whoever they may be ; to strip them of their 
property or reduce them into servitude : or 
give aid or support to those who commit such 
excesses, or carry on that infamous traffic, by 
which the blacks, as if they were not men, but 
mere impure animals, reduced like them into 
servitude, without any distinction, contrary to 
the laws of justice and humanity, are bought, 
sold, and devoted to endure the hardest labors ; 
and on account of which dissensions are ex- 
cited and almost continual wars are fomented 
among nations by the allurements of gain of- 
fered to those who first carry away the Negroes. 

"Wherefore, by virtue of the apostolical 
authority, we condemn all these things afore- 
said, as absolutely unworthy of the Christian 
name ; and, by the same authority, we abso- 
lutely prohibit and interdict all ecclesiastics 
and laymen from venturing to maintain that 
this traffic in blacks is permitted, under any 
pretext or color whatsoever ; or to preach or 
teach in public or in private, in any way what- 
ever, anything, contrary to these apostolic 
letters. And in order that these letters may 
come to the knowledge of all, and that no one 
may pretend ignorance, we ordain and decree 
that they be published and posted up, accord- 
ing to custom, by one of our officers, on the 
doors of the basilica of the Prince of the Apos- 
tles, of the Apostolic Chancery, of the Palace 
of Justice, of Monte Citorio, and at the Campo 
di Fiori. Given at Rome, at St. Mary Major's, 
under the seal of the fisherman, the 3d of No- 
vember, 1839, the ninth year of our Pontificate. 

Louis, Cardinal Lambritschini." 
I again particularly invite attention to the 
document which I have just inserted — to these 
letters which magnificently crown the united 
efforts of the Church for the abolition of slavery. 
As the abolition of the slave-trade — the object 
of a treaty recently made between the great 
powers — is at this moment one of the affairs 
which occupy the chief attention of Europe, it 
is proper to pause a few moments, to reflect on 
the contents of the apostolic letters of the 
Sovereign Pontiff Gregory XVI. Let us ob- 
serve, in the first place, that in the year 1482, 
Pope Pius II. addressed apostolical letters to 
the Bishop of Ruvo, about to depart for the 
newly discovered countries — letters, in which 
he did not exclusively confine himself to giving 
the prelate the powers necessary to exercise 
his holy ministry with the greatest fruit in 
those countries, but in which he takes occasion 
to censure very severely the conduct of Chris- 
tians who reduced the neophytes into slavery. 
Exactly at the end of the fifteenth century, at 
the time when it may be said that the Church 
gathering the last fruit of her long labors, at 

! length saw Europe emerge from the chaos in 
which the irruption of the barbarians had 
plunged her ; at the time when the social and 
political institutions were developed with daily 
increasing ardor, and began to form a regular 

| and coherent body ; at this moment the Church 

i resumes her secular contest with another bar- 
barism which reappeared in distant countries ; 

, she opposes the abuse of the superiority of 



440 



NOTES. 



strength and intelligence, which the conquerors 

possessed over the conquered nations. 

This fact alone proves that, for the true 
liberty and well-being of nations, for the just 
pre-eminence of right over might, and for the 
triumph of justice over force, the intelligence 
and refinement of nations are not enough — re- 
ligion also is required. In ancient times, we 
see nations cultivated to the highest point 
commit unheard of atrocities ; and in modern 
times, Europeans, so proud of their knowledge 
and advancement, introduce slavery among 
the unfortunate nations who have fallen under 
their dominion. Now, who was the first to 
raise a voice against such injustice — against 
such horrible barbarity ? It was not policy, 
which perhaps rejoiced to see its conquests 
consolidated by slavery ; it was not commerce 
which found in this infamous traffic an easy 
means of making shameful but abundant 
profits ; it was not philosophy, which, fully 
explaining the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle, 
A7ould perhaps have seen without concern the 
resuscitation of the degrading theory of races 
born for slavery ; but it was the Catholic reli- 
gion, expressing herself by the mouth of the 
Vicar of Jesus Christ. 

It is certainly a consolatory spectacle for 
Catholics to see a Roman Pontiff, four centuries 
ago, condemn what Europe, with all her civili- 
zation and refinement, condemns only at the 
present day. Still, Europe only does so with 
difficulty ; and all those who take part in this 
tardy condemnation are not exempt from the 
suspicion of being actuated by motives of 
interest. No doubt the Roman Pontiff did not 
effect all the good he intended ; but doctrines 
do not remain sterile when they emanate from 
a high quarter, whence, diffusing themselves to 
great distances, they descend on persons who 
receive them with veneration, if it were only 
on account of him who teaches them. The 
conquering nations were then Christians, and 
sincere ones ; it is therefore indubitable, that 
the admonitions of the Pope, transmitted by 
the mouths of Bishops and other priests, must 
have had very salutary effects. If, in cases 
like this, where we see a measure taken against 
an evil, the evil nevertheless resists and con- 
tinues, we imagine, by a grievous mistake, that 
the measure has been vain, and that its author 
has produced no effect. It is one thing to ex- 
tirpate, and another to diminish an evil ; and 
it cannot be doubted that, if the Bulls of the 
Popes had not all the effect intended, they 
must nevertheless have served to diminish the 
evil, by improving the lot of nations fallen 
under the yoke. The evil prevented and 
avoided is not seen ; the preservative has hin- 
dered its existence : but the existing evil is 
palpable — it affects us, it excites our regret, 
and we often forget the gratitude due to the 
hand which has preserved us from greater 
evils. How often is it thus with respect to re- 
ligion ! She cures many things, but she pre- 
vents still more. If she takes possession of the 
heart of man, it is in order to destroy there 
even the very roots of a thousand evils. 

Let us imagine the Europeans of the fifteenth 
century invading the East and West Indies, 
without any check, guided only by the inspira- 
tions of cupidity, and by the caprices of arbi- 
trary power, full of the pride of conquerors, 



and of the contempt with which the Indians 
must have inspired them, on account of the 
inferiority of their knowledge, and of their 
backwardness in civilization and refinement : 
what must have happened ? If, in spite of the 
incessant cries of religion, in spite of the in- 
fluence which she had on laws and manners, 
the conquered nations have had so much to 
suffer, would not the evil have been carried to 
an intolerable extent, without those powerful 
causes which incessantly combated, prevented 
or diminished it ? The conquered would have 
been reduced into slavery en masse : they would 
have been condemned en masse to perpetual 
degradation ; they would have been deprived 
even of the hope of one day entering on the 
career of civilization. 

If the conduct of Europeans at that time 
with respect to men of other races — if the con- 
duct of some nations of our own days is to be 
deplored, it cannot be said at least that the 
Catholic religion has not opposed such excesses 
with all her strength ; it cannot be said that 
the Head of the Church has ever allowed these 
evils to pass without raising his voice to recall 
to mind the rights of men, to stigmatize injus- 
tice, to excite abhorrence of cruelty, and ener- 
getically to plead the cause of humanity, with- 
out distinction of races, climates, or colors. 

Whence does Europe derive this lofty idea 
and this generous feeling, which urge her to 
declare herself so strongly against the traffic in 
men, and to demand the complete abolition of 
slavery in the colonies? When posterity shall 
call to mind these glorious facts; when it shall 
adopt them as marking a new era in the annals 
of civilization ; when, studying and analyzing 
the causes which have conducted European 
legislation and manners to so high a pitch, and, 
passing over temporary and unimportant mo- 
tives, insignificant circumstances, and second- 
ary agents, it shall seek for the vital principle 
which impelled European civilization towards 
so glorious an end, it will find that this principle 
was Christianity; and if, desiring to fathom 
the question more and more, it should inquire 
whether this was Christianity, under a vague 
and general form — Christianity without autho- 
rity — Christianity without Catholicity — the 
answer of history will be this : Catholicity, 
exclusively prevailing in Europe, abolished 
slavery among the European races ; she intro- 
duced the principle of the abolition of slavery 
into European civilization, by showing practi- 
cally, and in opposition to the opinion of anti- 
quity, that slavery was not necessary for 
society ; and she made it understood, that the 
sacred work of enfranchisement was the foun- 
dation of all great and life-giving civilization. 
She has therefore inoculated European civiliza- 
tion with the principle of the abolition of 
slavery ; it is owing to her that, wherever this 
civilization has come into contact with slavery, 
it has been profoundly disturbed — an evident 
proof that there were at the bottom two oppo- 
site elements, two contending principles, which 
were compelled to struggle incessantly, until 
the more powerful, noble, and fruitful prevail- 
ing, and reducing the other under the yoke, in 
the end annihilated it. I will say more : by 
searching whether facts really confirm this 
influence of Catholicity, not only in all that 
concerns the civilization of Europe, but also in 



NOTES. 441 



the countries which Europeans have conquered 
two centuries ago, in the East and West, we 
shall meet with Catholic Bishops and priests 
working without intermission in improving the 
lot of colonial slaves ; we shall call to mind 
what is due to the Catholic missions j we shall 
read and understand the apostolical letters of 
Pius II., issued in 1182, and mentioned above ; 
those of Paul III., in 1537 ; those of Urban 
VIII., in 1639; those of Benedict XIV., in 
1741 ; and those of Gregory XVI., in 1839. 

In these letters there is taught and defined 
all that has been or can be said on this point 
in favor of humanity. We shall there find 
blamed, condemned, and punished, all that 
European civilization has at length resolved 
to condemn and punish ; and when calling to 
mind also that it was Pius VII., who, at the 
beginning of this century, zealously interposed 
his good offices with men in power for the com- 
plete abolition of slavery among Christians, we 
shall not be able to avoid acknowledging and 
confessing that Catholicity has had the princi- 
pal share in this great work. It is she indeed 
who has laid down the principle on which the 
work rests, who has established the precedents 
which guide it, who has constantly proclaimed 
the principles which have suggested it and has 
constantly condemned those who have opposed 
it: it is she, in fine, who at all times has de- 
clared open war against cruelty and cupidity, 
— the support and perpetual motives for in- 
justice and inhumanity. Let us hear the testi- 
mony of a celebrated Protestant author, Ro- 
bertson, the historian of America: "From the 
time that ecclesiastics were sent as instructors 
into America, they perceived that the rigor 
with which their countrymen treated the na- 
tives rendered their ministry altogether fruit- 
less. The missionaries, in conformity with the 
mild spirit of that religion which they were em- 
ployed to publish, soon remonstrated against 
the maxims of the planters with respect to the 
Americans, and condemned the repartimientos, 
or distributions, by which they were given up 
as slaves to their conquerors, as no less con- 
trary to natural justice and the precepts of 
Christianity, than to sound policy. The Domini- 
cans, to whom the instruction of the Americans 
was originally committed, were the most vehe- 
ment in attacking the repartimientos. In the 
year 1511, Motesino, one of their most eminent 
preachers, inveighed against this practice in the 
great church at St. Domingo, with all the im- 
petuosity of his natural eloquence. Don Diego 
Columbus, the principal officers of the colony, 
and all the laymen who had been his hearers, 
complained of the monk to his superiors ; but 
they, instead of condemning, applauded his 
doctrine, as equally pious and seasonable. The 
Franciscans, influenced by the spirit of oppo- 
sition and rivalship which subsists between the 
two orders, discovered some inclination to take 
part with the laity, and to espouse the defence 
of the repartimientos. But as they could not 
with decency give their approbation to a sys- 
tem of oppression so repugnant to the spirit of 
religion, they endeavored to palliate what they 
could not justify, and alleged in excuse for the 
conduct of their countrymen, that it was im- 
possible to carry on any improvement in the 
colony, unless the Spaniards possessed such 
dominion over the natives, that they could 
56 



compel them to labor. The Dominicans, re- 
gardless of such political and interested con- 
siderations, would not relax in any degree the 
rigor of their sentiments, and even refused to 
absolve, or admit to the sacrament, such of 
their countrymen as continued to hold the na- 
tives in servitude. Both parties applied to the 
king for his decision in a matter of such im- 
i portance. Ferdinand empowered a committee 
of his Privy Council, assisted by some of the 
J most eminent civilians and divines in Spain, 
to hear the deputies sent from Hispaniola in 
support of their respective opinions. After a. 
long discussion, the speculative point in con- 
troversy was determined in favor of the Do- 
minicans ; the Indians were declared to be a. 
free people, entitled to all the natural rights 
of man ; but notwithstanding this decision, 
the repartimientos were continued upon their 
ancient footing. As this determination ad- 
mitted the principle upon which the Dominicans 
founded their opinion, they renewed their ef- 
forts to obtain relief for the Indians with addi- 
tional boldness and zeal. At length, in order 
to quiet the colony, which was alarmed by their 
remonstrances and censures, Ferdinand issued 
a decree of his Privy Council (1513), declaring 
that after mature consideration of the apostolic 
Bull, and other titles by which the Crown of 
Castile claimed a right to its possessions, in the 
new world, the servitude of the Indians was 
warranted both by the laws of God and man ; 
that unless they were subjected to the dominion 
of the Spaniards, and compelled to reside under 
their inspection, it would be impossible to re- 
claim them from idolatry, or to instruct them 
in the Christian faith ; that no further scruple 
ought to be entertained concerning the lawful- 
ness of the repartimientos, as the King and 
Council were willing to take the charge of that 
upon their own consciences ; and that therefore 
j the Dominicans, and monks of other religious 
I orders, should abstain for the future from those 
invectives which, from an excess of charitable 
but ill-informed zeal, they had uttered against 
i the practice. That his intention of adhering 
j to this decree might be fully understood, Ferdi- 
nand conferred new grants of Indians upon 
j several of his courtiers. But in order that he 
j might not seem altogether inattentive to the 
rights of humanity, he published an edic^ in 
which he endeavored to provide for the mild 
treatment of the Indians under the yoke to 
which he subjected them ; he regulated the 
nature of the work which they should be re- 
quired to perform ; he prescribed the mode in 
which they should be clothed and fed, and gave 
directions with respect to their instruction in 
the principles of Christianity. But the Do- 
minicans, who, from their experience of what 
had passed, judged concerning the future, soon 
perceived the inefificacy of those provisions, 
and foretold that, as long as it was the interest 
of individuals to treat the Indians with rigor, 
no public regulations would render their servi- 
tude mild or tolerable. They considered it as 
vain to waste their own time and strength in 
attempting to communicate the sublime truths 
to men whose spirits were broken, and their 
faculties impaired by oppression. Some of 
them, in despair, requested the permission of 
their superiors to remove to the continent, and 
pursue the object of their mission among such 



442 



NOTES. 



of the natives as were not hitherto corrupted 
by the example of the Spaniards, or alienated 
by their cruelty from the Christian faith. Such 
as remained in Hispaniola continued to remon- 
strate, with decent firmness, against the servi- 
tude of the Indians. 

" The violent operations of Albuquerque, the 
new distributor of the Indians, revived the zeal 
of the Dominicans against the repartimientos, 
and called forth an advocate for that oppressed 
people who possessed all the courage, the ta- 
lents, and the activity requisite in supporting 
such a desperate cause. This was Bartholomew 
de las Casas, a native of Seville, and one of 
the clergymen sent out with Columbus in his 
second voyage to Hispaniola, in order to settle 
in that Island. He early adopted the opinion 
prevalent among ecclesiastics with respect to 
the unlawfulness of reducing the natives to 
servitude ; and that he might demonstrate the 
sincerity of his conviction, he relinquished all 
the Indians who had fallen to his share in the 
division of the inhabitants among their con- 
querors, declaring that he should ever bewail 
his own misfortune and guilt, in having exer- 
cised for a moment this impious dominion over 
his fellow-creatures. From that time he be- 
came the avowed patron of the Indians ,• and 
by his bold interpositions in their behalf, as 
well as by the respect due to his abilities and 
character, he had often the merit of setting 
some bounds to the excesses of his country- 
men." [History of America, book 3.) 

It would be too long to relate here the ener- 
getic efforts of De las Casas in favor of the 
colonies of the new world ; all know them — 
all must know that, filled with zeal for the 
liberty of the Indians, he conceived and under- 
took an attempt at civilization analogous to 
that which was realized later, to the immortal 
honor of the Catholic clergy, in Paraguay. 
If the efforts of De las Casas had not all the 
success that might naturally have been ex- 
pected, we find the cause of this in the thou- 
sand passions with which history makes us 
acquainted, and perhaps also in the impetuosity 
of this man, whose sublime zeal was not always 
accompanied by the consummate prudence 
which the Church displays. 

However this may be, Catholicity has com- 
pletely accomplished her mission of peace and 
love ; without injustice or catastrophe, she has 
broken the chains under which a large portion 
of the human race groaned ; and if it had been 
given her to prevail for some time in Asia and 
Africa, she Avould have achieved their destruc- 
tion in the four quarters of the globe, by 
banishing the degradations and the abomina- 
tions introduced and established in those coun- 
tries by Mahometanism and idolatry. It is 
melancholy, no doubt, that Christianity has 
not yet exercised over these latter countries all 
the influence which would have been necessary 
to ameliorate the social and political condition 
of those nations, by changing their ideas and 
manners. But if we seek for the causes of 
this lamentable delay, we certainly shall not 
find them in the conduct of Catholicity. This 
is not the place to point out these causes; 
nevertheless, while reserving the analysis and 
complete examination of this matter for another 
part of the work, I will make the remark en 
passant, that Protestantism may justly crimi- 



nate itself for the obstacles which, during three 
centuries^ it has opposed to the universality 
and efficacy of the Christian influence on infi- 
del nations. These few words will suffice here ; 
we shall return to this important subject later. 

Note 16, p. 131. 

We can scarcely believe how far the ideas 
of the ancients went astray with regard to the 
respect which is due to man. Can it be believed 
that they went so far, as to regard the lives of 
all who could not be useful to society as of no 
value ? and yet nothing is more certain. Wc 
might lament that this or that city had adopted 
a barbarous law ; that a ferocious custom was 
introduced among a people by the effect of par- 
ticular circumstances ; yet as long as philoso- 
phy protested against such attempts, human 
reason would have been unstained, and could 
not have been accused without injustice of 
taking part in infamous attempts at abortion 
or infanticide. But when we find crime de- 
fended and taught by the most important phi- 
losophers of antiquity ; when we see it triumph 
in the minds of the most illustrious men, who, 
with fearful calmness and serenity, prescribe 
the atrocities which we have named, we are 
confounded, and our blood runs cold; we would 
fain shut our eyes, not to see so much infamy 
thrown upon philosophy and human reason. 
Let us hear Plato in his Republic, in that book 
in which he undertook to collect all the theo- 
ries in his opinion the most distinguished and 
the best adapted to lead human society towards 
its beau ideal. This is his scandalous language : 
"Oportet profecto secundum ea quae supra 
concessimus, optimos viros mulieribus optimis 
ut plurimum congredi: deterrimos autem con- 
tra, deterrimis. Et illorem quidem prolem 
nutrire, horum minime, si armentum excel- 
lentissimum sit futurum. Et haec omnia dum 
agantur, ab omnibus praeterquam a principibus 
ignorari, si modo armentum custodum debeat 
seditione carere." " Prope admodum ;" "Very 
good," replies another speaker. (Plat. Rep. L v.) 

Behold, then, the human race reduced to the 
condition of mere brutes ; in truth, the phi- 
losopher had reason to use the word flock 
(armentum) ! There is this difference, how- 
ever, that magistrates imbued with such feel- 
ings must have been more harsh towards their 
subjects than a shepherd towards his flock. If 
the shepherd finds among the lambs which 
have just been born a weak and lame one, he 
does not kill it or allow it to die of hunger ; he 
carries it to the sheep who ought to nourish it, 
he caresses it to stop its cries. 

But perhaps the expressions which we have 
just quoted escaped the philosopher in a mo- 
ment of inadvertence ; perhaps the idea which 
they reveal was only one of those sinister in- 
spirations which glide into the mind of a man, 
and pass away without leaving any more im- 
pression than is made by a reptile moving 
through the grass. We wish it were so, for 
the fame of Plato ; but unhappily he returns 
to it so often, and insists on the point with so 
systematic a coldness, that no means of justi- 
fying him are left. " With respect," he says 
lower down, "to the children of citizens of 
inferior rank, and even those of other citizens, 
if they are born deformed, the magistrates 



NOTES. 



443 



shall hide them, as is proper, in some secure 
place, which it shall be forbidden to reveal." 
" Yes," replies one of the interlocutors ; " if 
we desire to preserve the race of warriors in 
its purity." 

Plato also lays down various rules with 
respect to the relations of the two sexes ; he 
speaks of the case in which the man and wo- 
man shall have reached an advanced age : 
" Quando igitur jam mulieres et viri aetatem 
generationi aptam egressi fuerint, licere viris 
dicenius, cuicumque voluerint, praeterquam 
filia? atque matri et filiarum natis matrisve 
majoribus : licere et mulieribus cuilibet, prae- 
terquam filio atque patri, ac superioribus et 
inferioribus eorumdem. Cum vero haec omnia 
mandaverimus, interdicemus fcetum talem (si 
contigeret) edi et in lucem produci. Si quid 
auteui matrem parere coegerit, ita exponere 
praecipieinus, quasi ei nulla nutritio sit." 

Plato seems to have been very well pleased 
with his doctrine ; for, in the very book in 
which he Avrites what we have just seen, he 
lays down the famous maxim, that the evils 
of states will never be remedied, that societies 
will never be well governed, until philosophers 
shall become kings, or kings become philoso- 
phers. God preserve us from seeing on the 
throne a philosophy such as his ! Moreover, 
his wish for the reign of philosophy has been 
realized in modern times. What do I say ? It 
has had more than empire ; it has been deified, 
and divine honors have been paid to it in 
public temples. I do not believe, however, 
that the happy days of the worship of reason 
are now much regretted. 

The horrible doctrine which we have just 
seen in Plato was transmitted with fidelity to 
future schools. Aristotle, who on so many 
points took the liberty of departing from the 
doctrines of his master, did not think of cor- 
recting those which regard abortion and in- 
fanticide. In his Politics he teaches the same 
crimes with the same calmness as Plato: "In 
order," he says, " to avoid nourishing weak or 
lame children, the law should direct them to 
be exposed or made away with." "Propter 
multitudinem autem liberorum, ne plures sint 
quam expediat, si gentium instituta et leges 
vetent procreata exponi, definitum esse oportet 
procreandorum liberorum numerum. Quod si 
quibus inter se copulatis et congressis, plures 
liberi, quam definitum sit, nascantur, prius- 
quam sensus et vita inseratur, abortus est 
fcetui inferendus." (Polit. 1. vii. c. 16.) 

It will be seen how much reason I had to 
say that man, as man, was esteemed as noth- 
ing among the ancients ; that society entirely 
absorbed him ; that it claimed unjust rights 
over him, and regarded him as an instrument 
to be used when of service, and which it had 
a right to destroy. 

We observe in the writings of the ancient 
philosophers, that they make of society a kind 
of whole, consisting of individuals, as the mass 
of iron consists of the atoms that compose 
it: they make of it a sort of unity, to which I 
all must be sacrificed ; they have no considera- I 
tion for the sphere of individual liberty ; they 
do not appear to dream that the object of 
society is the good, the happiness of individu- 
als and families. According to them, this 
unity is the principal good, with which no- 



thing else can be compared ; the greatest evil 
that can happen is, that this unity should be 
broken — an evil which must be avoided by all 
imaginable means. " Is not the worst evil of 
a state," says Plato, "that which divides it, 
and makes many out of onet and is? not the 
greatest excellence of a state, that which binds 
all its parts together, and makes it one t" Re- 
lying on this principle, and pursuing the de- 
velopment of his theory, he takes individuals 
and families, and kneads them, as it were, in 
order to form them into one compact whole. 
Thus, besides education and life in common, he 
wishes also to have women and children in 
common ; he considers it injurious that there 
should be personal enjoyments or sufferings ; 
he desires that all should be common and 
social; he allows individuals to live, think, 
feel, and act only as parts of a great whole. 
If you read his Republic with attention, and 
particularly the fifth book, you will see that 
the prevailing idea of this philosopher is what 
we have just explained. Let us hear Aristotle 
on the same point: "As the object of society," 
he says, " is one, it is clear that the education 
of all its members ought necessarily to be one 
and identical. Education ought to be public, 
and not private ; as things now are, each one 
takes care of his children as he thinks proper, 
and teaches them as he pleases. Each citizen 
is a particle of society, and the care to be 
given to a particle ought naturally to extend 
to what the whole requires." (Polit. 1. viii. 
c. 1.) In order to explain to us what he means 
by this common education, he concludes by 
quoting with honor the education which was 
given at Sparta, which every one knows con- 
sisted in stifling all feelings except a ferocious 
patriotism, the traits of which still make us 
shudder. 

With our ideas and customs, we do not know 
how to confine ourselves to considering society 
in this way. Individuals among us are at- 
tached to the social body, forming a part of it, 
but without losing their own sphere — that of 
the family ,• and they preserve around them a 
vast career, where they are allowed to exert 
themselves, without coming into collision with 
the colossus of society. Nevertheless, patriot- 
ism exists ; but it is no longer a blind instinc- 
tive passion, urging man on to the sacrifice, 
like a victim, with bandaged eyes, but it is no 
reasonable, noble, and exalted feeling, which 
forms heroes like those of Lepanto and Bay- 
len; which converts peaceful citizens, like 
those of Gyronna and Saragossa, into lions ; 
which, as by an electric spark, makes a whole 
people rise on a sudden without arms, and 
brave death from the artillery of a numerous 
and disciplined army : such was Madrid, fol- 
lowing the sublime Jlourons of Daoiz and of 
Velarda. 

I have already hinted, in the text, that so- 
ciety among the ancients claimed the right of 
interfering in all that regards individuals. I 
will add, that the thing went to a ridiculous 
extent. Who would imagine that the law 
ought to interfere in the food of a woman who 
was enceinte, or in the exercise which she 
should take every day ? This is what Aris- 
totle gravely says : " It is necessary that wo- 
men who are enceinte should take particular 
care of their bodies ; that they should avoid 



444 



NOTES. 



indulgence in luxury, and using food which is 
too light and weak. The legislator easily at- 
tains his end by prescribing and ordering them 
a daily walk, in order to go to honor and ven- 
erate the gods, to whom it has been confided 
by fate to watch over the formation of beings. 
Atque hoc facile assequitur scriptor legum, si 
eis iter aliquod quotidianum ad cultum vener- 
ationemque deorum eorum, quibus sorte obti- 
git, ut praesint gignendis animantibus, injunx- 
erit ac mandaverit." (Polit. L vii. c. 16.) 

The action of laws extended to every thing ; 
it seems that, in certain cases, even the tears 
of children could not escape this severity. 
" Those," says Aristotle, " who, by means of 
laws, forbid children to cry and weep, are 
wrong : cries and tears serve as exercise for 
children, and assist them in growing ; they are 
an effort of nature, which relieves and invigo- 
rates those who are in pain." (Polit. 1. vii. 
c. 17.) 

These doctrines of the ancients — this man- 
ner of considering the relations of individuals 
with society — very well explain how castes 
and slavery could be regarded as natural 
among them. Who can be astonished at see- 
ing whole races deprived of liberty, or regard- 
ed as incapable of partaking of the rights of 
other superior classes, when we see genera- 
tions of innocent beings condemned to death, 
and these conscientious philosophers not hav- 
ing the slightest scruple with respect to the 
legitimacy of so inhuman an act? It was not 
that these philosophers had not happiness in 
view as the object of society; but they had 
monstrous ideas with respect to the means of 
obtaining that happiness. 

Note 17, p. 146. 

The reader will easily dispense with my 
entering into details on the abject and shame- 
ful condition of women among the ancients, 
and in which they still are among the moderns 
where Christianity does not prevail ; moreover, 
my pen would be checked every moment by 
strict laws of modesty, if I were to attempt to 
represent the characteristic features of this 
wretched picture. The inversion of ideas was 
such, that we hear men the most renowned for 
their gravity and moderation rave in the most 
incredible manner on this point. We will lay 
aside hundreds of examples which it would be 
easy to adduce; but who is ignorant of the 
scandalous advice of the sage Solon, with re- 
spect to the lending of women for the purpose 
of improving the race ? Who has not blushed 
to read what the divine Plato, in his Republic, 
says of the propriety and manner of making 
women share in the public games ? Let us 
throw a veil over recollections so dishonour- 
able to human wisdom. When the chief legis- 
lators and sages so far forgot the first elements 
of morality, and the most ordinary inspirations 
of nature, what must have been the case with 
the vulgar? How fearfully true those words 
of the sacred text which represent to us the 
nations deprived of the light of Christianity as 
sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death ! 

There is nothing more fatal to woman, no- 
thing more apt to degrade her, than that which 
is injurious to modesty : and yet we see that 
the unlimited power granted to man over woman 



contributed to this degradation, and reduced 
her, among certain nations, to be nothing but a 
slave. Losing sight of the manners of other 
nations, let us consider those of the Romans 
for a moment. Among them the formula, ubi 
tu Cayus ego Caya, seemed to indicate a sub- 
jection so slight, that it might almost be called 
an equality ; but in order to appreciate this 
equality, it is enough to recollect that, at 
Rome, a husband could put his wife to death 
by his own authority, and that not only in the 
case of adultery, but for offences infinitely less 
serious. In the time of Romulus,. Egnacius 
Menecius was acquitted of a similar crime, 
although his wife had done nothing more than 
drink wine from a cask. These traits describe 
a nation, whatever importance you may besides 
think proper to attach to the solicitude of the 
Romans to prevent their matrons from becom- 
ing addicted to wine. When Cato directed an 
embrace, as a proof of affection, among relations, 
for the purpose, as Pliny relates, of ascertaining 
whether the women smelt of wine, an temetum 
olerent, it is true he showed his strictness ; but 
it was an unworthy outrage offered to the 
honor of the women themselves whose virtue 
it pretended to preserve. There are some 
remedies worse than the disease. 

Note 18, p. 157. 

The antichristian philosophy must have had 
considerable influence on the desire to find 
among the barbarians the origin of the eleva- 
tion of the female character in Europe, and of 
some other principles of our civilization. Indeed 
as soon as you discover the source of these 
admirable qualities in the forests of Germany, 
Christianity is stripped of a portion of its 
honors ; and what was its own and peculiar 
glory is divided among many. I will not deny 
that the Germans of Tacitus are sufficiently 
poetical ; but it is difficult to believe that the 
real Germans were so to any extent. Some 
passages inserted in the text add great force to 
our conjecture ; but what appears to me emi- 
nently calculated to dissipate all these illusions 
is, the history of the invasion by the barbarians, 
above all that which has been written by eye- 
witnesses. The picture, far from continuing po- 
etical, then becomes disgusting in the extreme. 
This interminable succession of nations passes 
before the eyes of the reader, like an alarming 
vision in an evil dream ; and certainly the first 
idea which occurs to us at the sight of this picture 
is, not to seek for any of the qualities of modern 
civilization in these invading hordes : but the 
great difficulty is, to know how this chaos has 
been reduced to order, and how it has been pos- 
sible to produce from such barbarism the- 
noblest and most brilliant civilization that has 
ever been seen on earth. Tacitus appears to 
be an enthusiast ; but Sidonius, who wrote at 
no great distance from the barbarians, who 
saw them, and suffered from meeting them, 
does not partake of this enthusiasm. " I find 
myself," he said, " among long-haired nations, 
compelled to hear the German language, and 
to applaud, at whatever cost, the song of the 
drunken Burgundian, with hair plastered with 
rancid grease. Happy your eyes who do not see 
them ; happy your ears who do not hear them f" 
If space permitted, it would be easy for me to 



NOTES. 



445 



accumulate a thousand passages which would 
evidently show what the barbarians were, and 
what could be expected from them in all re- 
spects. It is as clear as the light of day, that 
it was the design of Providence to employ these 
nations to destroy the Roman empire, and 
change the face of the world. The invaders 
seem to have had a feeling of their terrible 
mission. They march, they advance, they 
know not whither they go ; but they know well 
that they go to destroy. Attila called himself 
the scourge of God. The same barbarian him- 
self defined his formidable duty in these words : 
" The star falls, the sea is moved; I am the 
hammer of the earth. Where my horse passes, 
the grass never grows." Alaric, marching to- 
wards the capital of the world, said : "I cannot 
stop ; there is some one urges me, who excites me 
to sack Rome." Genseric prepares a naval ex- 
pedition ; his troops are on board, he himself 
embarks : no one knows the point towards 
which he will direct his sails. The pilot ap- 
proaches the barbarian, and asks him ; " My 
lord, against what nations icill you wage war ?'■ 
"Against those who have provoked the anger of 
God," replies Genseric. 

If Christianity, in the midst of this catastro- 
phe, had not existed in Europe, civilization 
would have been lost and annihilated, perhaps 
forever. But a religion of light and love was 
sure to triumph over ignorance and violence. 
Even during the times of the calamities of the 
invasion, that religion prevented many dis- 
asters, owing to the ascendency which it began 
to exercise over the barbarians ; the most 
critical moment being past, the conquerors 
having become in some degree settled, she 
immediately employed a system so vast, so 
efficacious, so decisive, that the conquerors 
found themselves conquered, not by arms, but 
by charity. It was not in the power of the 
Church to prevent the invasion ; God had de- 
creed it, and His decree must be accomplished. 
Thus the pious monk who went to meet Alaric 
approaching Rome, could not stop him on his 
march, because the barbarian answered him, 
that he could not stop, — that there was some 
one who urged him on, and that he advanced 
against his own will. But the Church awaited 
the barbarians after the conquest, knowing that 
Providence would not abandon His own work, 
that the hope of the future lot of nations was 
left in the hands of the spouse of Jesus Christ ; 
on this account does Alaric advance on Rome, 
sack, and destroy it; but on a sudden, finding 
himself in presence of religion, he stops, be- 
comes mollified, and appoints the Churches of 
St. Peter and St. Paul as places of refuge. A 
remarkable fact, and an admirable symbol of the 
Chriftian religion preserving the universe from 
total ruin. 

Note 19, p. 165. 

The great benefit conferred on modern 
society by the formation of a pure and correct 
public conscience, would acquire extraordinary 
value in our eyes, if we compared our moral 
ideas with those of all other nations, ancient 
and modern ; the result of such an examination 
would be, to show in how lamentable a manner 
good principles become corrupted, when they 
are confided to the reason of man. I will 

2 



content myself, however, with a few words 
on the ancients, in order to show how cor- 
rect I was in saying that our manners, however 
corrupt they may be, would have appeared 
a model of morality and dignity to the hea- 
thens. 

The temples consecrated to Venus in Baby- 
lon and Corinth are connected with abomina- 
tions such as to be even incomprehensible. 
Deified passion required sacrifices worthy of it ; 
a divinity without modesty required the sacri- 
fice of modesty ; and the sacred name of 
Temple was applied to asylums of the most 
unbridled licentiousness. There was not a veil 
even for the greatest crimes. It is known how 
the daughters of Chypre gained a dowry for 
their marriage ; all have heard of the mysteries 
of Adonis, Priapus, and other impure divinities. 
There are vices which, as it were, want a name 
among the moderns : or if they have one, it is 
accompanied by the recollection of a terrible 
chastisement inflicted on some criminal cities. 
In reading the histories of antiquity descriptive 
of the manners of their times, the book falls 
from our hands. On this subject we must be 
content with these few hints, calculated to 
awaken in the minds of our readers the recol- 
lection of what has a thousand times excited 
their indignation in reading the history and 
studying the literature of pagan antiquity. 
The author is compelled to be satisfied with a 
recollection : he abstains from a description. 

Note 20, p. 171. 

It is now so common to exalt beyond measure 
the power of ideas, that some persons will per- 
haps consider exaggerated what I have said 
with respect to their want of power, not only to 
influence society, but even to preserve them- 
selves, while, remaining in the mere sphere of 
ideas, they do not become realized in institu- 
tions, which are their organ, and at the same 
time their rampart and defence. 

I am very far, as I have clearly stated in the 
text, from denying or calling in question what 
is called the power of ideas : I only mean to 
show that, alone and by themselves, ideas have 
little power; and that science, properly so 
called, as far as the organization of society is 
concerned, is a much less important thing than 
is generally supposed. This doctrine has an 
intimate connection with the system followed 
by the Catholic Church, which, while con- 
stantly endeavoring to develope the human 
mind by means of the propagation of the 
sciences, has nevertheless assigned to them a 
secondary part in the regulation of society. 
While religion has never been opposed to true 
science, never, on the other hand, has she 
ceased to show a certain degree of mistrust 
with respect to all that was the exclusive pro- 
duction of human thought; and observe that 
this is one of the chief differences between re- 
ligion and the philosophy of the last age ; or, 
we should rather say, it was the cause of their 
violent antipathy. Religion did not condemn 
science ; on the contrary, she loved, protected, 
and encouraged it ; but at the same time she 
marked out its limits, warned it that it was 
blind on some points, announced to it that it 
would be powerless in some of its labors, and 
that in others its action would be destructive 
N 



446 



NOTES. 



and fatal. Philosophy, on the contrary, loudly 
proclaimed the sovereignty of science, declared 
it to be all-powerful, and deified it ; it attri- 
buted to it strength and courage to change the 
face of the world, and wisdom and foresight 
enough to work this change for the good of 
humanity. This pride of knowledge, this dei- 
fication of thought, is, if you observe closely, 
the foundation of Protestant doctrine. All 
authority being taken away, reason is the only 
competent judge, the intellect receives directly 
and immediately from God all the light which 
is necessary. This is the fundamental doctrine 
of Protestantism, that is to say, the pride of 
the mind. 

If we closely observe, even the triumph of 
revolutions has in no degree nullified the wise 
anticipations of religion; and knowledge, pro- 
perly so called, instead of gaining any credit 
from this triumph, has entirely lost what it 
had: there remains nothing of the revolu- 
tionary knowledge ; what remains is the effects 
of the revolution, the interests created by it, 
the institutions which have arisen from those 
interests, and which, since that time, have 
sought in the department of science itself our 
principles to support them, — principles alto- 
gether different from those which had been 
proclaimed in the beginning. 

I have said that every idea has need of being 
realized in an institution ; this is so true, that 
revolutions themselves, warned by the instinct 
which leads them to preserve, with more or less 
integrity, the principles whence they have 
arisen, tend from the first to create those insti- 
tutions in which the revolutionary doctrines 
may be perpetuated, or to constitute succes- 
sors to represent them when they shall have 
disappeared from the schools. This may lead 
to many reflections on the origin and present 
condition of several forms of governments in 
different countries of Europe. 

When speaking of the rapidity with which 
scientific theories succeed each other, when 
pointing out the immense development which 
the press has given to the field of discussion, I 
have shown that this was not an infallible sign 
of scientific progress, still less a guarantee for 
the fertility of human thought in realizing 
great things in the material and social order. 
I have said that grand conceptions proceed 
rather from intuition than from discourses ; and 
on this subject I have recalled to mind histori- 
cal events and personages which place this 
matter beyond a doubt. In support of this 
assertion, ideology might have furnished us 
with abundant proofs, if it were necessary to 
have recourse to science itself to prove its own 
sterility. But mere good sense, taught by the 
lessons of experience daily, is enough to con- 
vince us that the men who are the most able 
in theory are, often enough, not only mediocre, 
but even weak in the exercise of authority. 
With regard to the hints which I have thrown 
out with respect to "intuition "and "dis- 
courses," I leave them to the judgment of any 
one who has applied to the study of the hu- 
man mind. I am confident that the opinion 
of those who have reflected will not differ 
from my own. 



Note 21, p. 175. 

I have attributed to Christianity the gentle- 
ness of manners which Europe now enjoys. 
Yet, in spite of the decline of religious belief 
in the last century, this gentleness of manners, 
instead of being destroyed, has only been 
raised to a higher degree. This contrast, the 
effect of which, at first sight, is to destroy 
what I have established, requires some expla- 
nation. First of all, we must recollect the dis- 
tinction pointed out in the text between effem- 
inacy and gentleness of manners. The first is 
a fault, the second a valuable quality ; the first 
emanates from enervation of the mind and 
weakening of the body ; the second is owing 
to the preponderance of reason, the empire of 
the mind over the body, the triumph of justice 
over force, of right over might. There is a 
large portion of real gentleness in manners at 
the present day, but luxury has also a consid- 
erable part therein. This luxury of manners 
has certainly not arisen from religion, but from 
infidelity ; the latter, never extending its view 
beyond the present life, causes the lofty desti- 
nies, and even the very existence of the soul, 
to be forgotten, puts egotism upon the throne, 
constantly excites and keeps alive the love of 
pleasure, and makes man the vile slave of his 
passions. On the contrary, at the first sight, 
we perceive that our manners owe all their 
gentleness to Christianity ; all the ideas, all 
the feelings, on which this gentleness is found- 
ed, bear the mark of Christianity. The dig- 
nity of man, his rights, the obligation of treat- 
ing him with the respect which is due to him, 
and of appealing to his mind by reason rather 
than to his body by violence, the necessity im- 
posed on every one of keeping within the line 
of his duty, of respecting the property and the 
persons of others, — all this body of principles, 
to which real gentleness of manners is owing, 
is due, in Europe, to the influence of Christi- 
anity, which, after a struggle of many centu- 
ries against the barbarism and ferocity of 
invading nations, succeeded in destroying the 
system of violence which these same nations 
had made general. 

As philosophy has taken care to change the 
ancient names consecrated by religion, and 
authorized by the usage of a succession of 
ages, it happens that some ideas, although the 
produce of Christianity, are scarcely acknow- 
ledged as such, only because they are disguised 
under a worldly dress. Who does not know 
that mutual love among men and fraternal 
charity are ideas entirely due to Christianity ? 
Who does not know that pagan antiquity did 
not acknowledge them, that it even despised 
them ? And nevertheless, this affection, which 
was formerly called charity, because charity 
was the virtue from which it took its legitimate 
origin, has constantly taken care to assume 
other names, as if it were ashamed to be seen 
in public with any appearance of religion. 
The mania for attacking the Christian religion 
being passed, it is openly confessed that the 
principle of universal charity is owing to her ; 
but language remains infected with Voltairian 
philosophy even since the discredit into which 
that philosophy has fallen. Whence it follows, 
that we very often do not appreciate as we 



NOTES. 447 



ought the influence of Christianity on the so- 
ciety which surrounds us, and that we attri- 
bute to other ideas and other causes the phe- 
nomena which are evidently owing to religion. 
Society at present, in spite of all its indiffer- 
ence, is more indebted to religion than is 
commonly supposed; it resembles those men, 
who, born of an illustrious family, in which 
good principles and a careful education are 
transmitted as an inheritance from generation 
to generation, preserve in their manners and 
behavior, even in the midst of their disorders, 
their crimes, and I will even venture to say, 
their degradation, some traits which denote 
their noble origin. 

Note 22, p. 183. 

A few regulations of Councils, quoted in the 
text, are sufficient to give an idea of the sys- 
tem pursued by the Church for the purpose of 
reforming and softening manners. It may be 
remarked that, on previous occasions during 
this work, I have a strong inclination to call 
to mind monuments of this kind ; I will state 
here that I have two reasons for doing this : 
1. When having to compare Protestantism with 
Catholicity, I believe that the best means of 
representing the real spirit of the latter is, to 
show it at work; this is done when we bring 
to light the measures which were adopted, ac- 
cording to different circumstances, by Popes 
and Councils. 2. Considering the direction 
which historical studies take in Europe, and 
the taste, which is daily becoming more gen- 
eral, not for histories, but for historical docu- 
ments, it is proper always to bear in mind that 
the proceedings of Councils are of the highest 
importance, not only in historical and ecclesi- 
astical matters, but also in political and social 
ones ; so that to pay no attention to the data 
which are found in the records of Councils, is 
monstrously to mutilate, or rather wholly to 
destroy, the history of Europe. 

On this account it is very useful, and even 
necessary in many things, to consult these re- 
cords, although it may be painful to our indo- 
lence, on account of their enormous extent and 
the ennui of finding many things devoid of in- 
terest for our times. The sciences, above all 
those which have society for their object, lead 
to satisfactory results only by means of pain- 
ful labors. What is useful is frequently mixed 
and confounded with what is not. The most 
valuable things are sometimes found by the 
side of repulsive objects ; but in nature, do we 
find gold without having removed rude masses 
of earth ? 

Those who have attempted to find the germ 
of the precious qualities of European civiliza- 
tion among the barbarians of the north, should 
undoubtedly have attributed the gentleness of 
our manners to the same barbarians ; they 
would have had in support of this paradox a 
fact certainly more specious than that which 
they have relied on to give the honor of ele- 
vating European women to the Germans. I 
allude to the well-known custom of avoiding 
the infliction of corporal punishments, and of 
chastising the gravest offences by fines only. 
Nothing is more likely to make us believe that 
these nations were happily inclined to gentle- 
ness of manners, since, in the midst of their 



barbarism, they used the right of punishment 
with a moderation which is not found even 
among the most civilized and refined nations. 
If we regard the thing in this point of view, 
it seems as if the influence of Christianity on 
the barbarians had the effect of rendering their 
manners more harsh instead of more gentle ; 
indeed, after Christianity was introduced, the 
infliction of corporal punishments became gen- 
eral, and even that of death was not excluded. 

But when we attentively consider this pecu- 
liarity of the criminal code of the barbarians, 
we shall see that, far from showing the advance- 
ment of their civilization and the gentleness of 
their manners, it is, on the contrary, the most 
evident proof that they were behind-hand ; it 
is the strongest index of the harshness and bar- 
barism which reigned among them. In the first 
place, inasmuch as crimes among them were 
punished by means of fines, or, as it was called, 
by composition, it is clear that the law paid 
much more attention to repairing an injury 
than to punishing a crime; a circumstance 
which clearly shows us how little they thought 
about the morality of the action, as they at- 
tended not so much to the action itself, as to 
the wrong which it inflicted. Therefore this 
was not an element of civilization but of bar- 
barism ; this tended to nothing less than the 
banishment of morality from the world. The 
Church combated this principle, as fatal in pub- 
lic as in private affairs ; she introduced into 
criminal legislation a new set of ideas, which 
completely changed its spirit. On this point 
M. Guizot has done full justice to the Catholic 
Church. I am delighted to acknowledge and to 
insert this homage here by transcribing his own 
words. After having pointed out the difference 
which existed between the laws of the Visi- 
goths, derived in great part from the Councils 
of Toledo, and the other barbarian laws, M. 
Guizot signalizes the immense superiority of 
the ideas of the Church in matters of legisla- 
tion, of justice, and in all that concerns the 
search after truth and the lot of men ; he adds : 
" In criminal matters, the relation of crimes to 
punishments is fixed (in the laws of the Visi- 
goths) according to sufficiently just, philoso- 
phical, and moral notions. We there perceive 
the efforts of an enlightened legislator, who 
contends against the violence and rashness of 
barbarian manners. The chapter Be cosde et 
morte hominum, compared with the correspond- 
ing laws of other nations, is a very remarka- 
ble example of this. Elsewhere, it is almost 
exclusively the injury which seems to consti- 
tute the crime, and the punishment is sought 
in that material reparation which is the result 
of composition. Here, the crime is referred to 
its real and moral element, the intention. The 
different shades of criminality, absolutely vo- 
luntary homicide, homicide by inadvertence, 
provoked homicide, homicide with or without 
premeditation, are distinguished and defined 
almost as well as in our own codes, and the 
punishments vary in a proportion equally just. 
The justice of the legislator has gone still 
further. He has attempted, if not to abolish, 
at least to diminish the diversity of legal value 
established among men by the other barbarian 
laws. The only distinction which it preserves 
is that of freeman and slave. With respect to 
freeman, the punishment varies neither with 



448 



NOTES. 



the origin nor the rank of the deceased, but 
only according to the different degrees of the 
culpability of the murderer. With regard to 
slaves, not venturing completely to withdraw 
from the masters the right of life and death, it 
has been attempted at least to restrain it by 
subjecting it to a public and regular procedure. 
The text of the law deserves to be cited. 

" ' If no one guilty of, or an accomplice in, 
a crime ought to remain unpunished, with how 
much more reason ought he to be condemned 
who has wickedly and rashly committed a ho- 
micide ! Thus, as masters, in their pride, often 
put their slaves to death without any fault of 
the latter, it is proper altogether to extirpate 
this license, and to ordain that the present law 
shall be forever observed by all. No master 
or mistress shall put to death, without public 
trial, any of their slaves, male or female, or 
any person dependent on them. If a slave or 
any other servant shall commit a crime which 
may subject him to capital punishment, his 
master or his accuser shall immediately inform 
the judge or the count or duke of the place 
where the deed has been committed. After the 
affair has been inquired into, if the crime be 
proved, let the criminal undergo, either by the 
judge or his own master, the sentence of death 
which he has deserved ; so that, nevertheless, 
if the judge be unwilling to put the accused to 
death, he shall draw up in writing a capital 
sentence, and then it shall be in the power of 
the master to put him to death or not. Indeed, 
if the slave, with a fatal audacity, resisting his 
master, has struck, or attempted to strike, him 
with a weapon, with a stone, or with any other 
kind of blow, and if the master, in defending 
himself, has killed the slave in his passion, the 
master shall be in no way subject to the punish- 
ment of homicide. But it shall be necessary 
to prove that the event took place thus, and 
that by the testimony or oath of the slaves, 
male or female, who shall have been present, 
and by the oath of the author of the deed him- 
self. Whoever from mere malice, either by his 
own hand or that of another, shall have killed 
his slave without public trial, shall be marked 
with infamy, declared incapable of appearing 
as a witness, shall be obliged to pass the rest 
of his life in exile and penance, and his goods 
shall go to the nearest relations to whom they 
are given by the law.' — For. Jud. liv. vi. tit. 
xv. 1. 12." [Hist. Gener. de la Civilisation en 
Europe, lecnn 6.) 

I have copied this passage from M. Guizot 
with pleasure, because I find there a confirma- 
tion of what I have just said on the subject of 
the influence of the Church in softening man- 
ners, and of what I have before stated with res- 
pect to the great amelioration which the Church 
made in the condition of slaves, by limiting 
the excessive power of their masters. This 
truth is proved in its place by so many docu- 
ments, that it seems useless to revert to it here ; 
it is enough now for my purpose, to point out 
that M. Guizot fully allows that the Church 
gave morality to the legislation of the barba- 
rians, by making them consider the wickedness 
of the crime, whereas they had previously at- 
tended only to the injury of which it was the 
cause ; she has thus transferred the action from 
the physical to the moral order, giving to pu- 
nishments their real character, and not allow- 



ing them to remain reduced to the level of a 
mere material reparation. Hence we see that 
the criminal system of the barbarians, which, 
at the first view, seemed to indicate progress in 
civilization, was, in reality, owing to the little 
ascendency which moral principles exercised 
] over these nations, and to the fact, that the 
views of the legislator were very slightly raised 
above the purely material order. 

There is another observation to be made on 
this point, viz. that the mildness with which 
crimes were punished is the best proof of the 
frequency with which they were committed. 
When in a country assassinations, mutilations, 
and other similar attempts are very rare, they 
are regarded with horror : those who are guilty 
of them are chastised with severity. But when 
crimes are very frequently committed, they in- 
sensibty lose their enormity ; not only those 
I who commit them, but all the world become 
I accustomed to their hideous aspect, and the le- 
gislator is then naturally induced to treat them 
with indulgence. This is shown us by the ex- 
perience of every day ; and the reader will have 
no difficulty in finding in society at the pre- 
sent time more than one crime to which the re- 
mark which I have just made is applicable. 
Among the barbarians, it was common to ap- 
peal to force, not only with respect to property, 
but also to persons ; wherefore it was natural 
that crimes of this kind should not be regard- 
ed by them with the same aversion, it may be 
said with the same horror, as among a people 
! where the triumph of the ideas of reason, jus- 
tice, right, and law, render it impossible to con- 
1 ceive even the existence of a society where 
each individual should believe himself self-en- 
titled to do justice to himself. Thus the laws 
, against these crimes naturally became milder, 
! the legislator contenting himself with repair- 
| ing the injury, without paying much attention 
! to the culpability of the delinquent. And this 
j is intimately connected with what I have said 
above with respect to public conscience ; for 
the legislator is always more or less the organ 
of this public conscience. Where an action, 
in any society whatever, is regarded as a hein- 
ous offence, the legislator cannot decree a mild 
punishment for it; on the other hand, it is not 
possble for him to chastise with great severity 
! what the society absolves or excuses. It will 
I sometimes happen that this proportion will be 
! altered, that this harmony will be destroyed ; 
but things soon quitting the path into which 
violence forced them, will not be long in return- 
ing to their ordinary course. Manners being 
chaste and pure, offences against them will be 
covered with abhorrence and infamy ; but if 
! morals be corrupted, the same acts will be re- 
I garded with indifference ; at the most they will 
| be denominated slight weaknesses. Among a 
i people where religious ideas exercise great in- 
| fluence, the violation of all that is conse- 
I crated to God is regarded as a horrible out- 
| rage, worthy of the greatest chastisements ; 
\ among another people, where infidelity has 
j made its ravages, the same violation is not 
! even placed on the list of ordinary offences ; 
instead of drawing on the guilty the justice 
of the law, scarcely does it draw on them 
the slight correction of the police. The reader 
will understand the appropriateness of this di- 
gression on the criminal legislation of the bar- 



NOTES. 



449 



barians, when he reflects that, in order to exa- 
mine the influence of Catholicity on the civili- 
zation of Europe, it is indispensable to take 
into consideration the other elements which 
have concurred in forming that civilization. 
Without this, it would be impossible properly 
to appreciate the respective action of each of 
these elements, either for good or evil ; impos- 
sible to bring to light the share which the 
Church can exclusively claim in the great work 
of our civilization : impossible to resolve the 
high question which has been raised by the 
partisans of Protestantism on the subject of the 
assumed advantages which the religious revo- 
lution of the sixteenth century has conferred 
on modern society. It is because the barbari- 
an nations are one of these elements, that it is 
so often necessary to attend to them. 

Note 23, p. 189. 
In the middle ages, almost all the monaste- 
ries and colleges of canons had a hospital an- 
nexed to them, not only to receive pilgrims, 
but also to aid in the support and consolation 
of the poor and the sick. If you desire to see 
the noblest symbol of religion sheltering all 
kinds of misfortune, consider the houses de- 
voted to prayer and the most sublime virtues 
converted into asylums for the miserable. This 
was exactly what took place at that time, when 
the public authority not only wanted the 
strength and knowledge necessary to establish 
a good administration for the relief of the un- 
fortunate, but did not even succeed in covering 
with her aegis the most sacred interests of so- 
ciety ; this shows us that when all was power- 
less, religion was still strong and fruitful ; that 
when all perished, religion not only preserved 
herself, but even founded immortal establish- 
ments. And pay attention to what we have 
so many times pointed out, viz. that the reli- 
gion which worked these prodigies was not a 
vague and abstract religion — the Christianity 
of the Protestants ; but religion with all her 
dogmas, her discipline, her hierarchy, her 
supreme Pontiff, in a word, the Catholic 
Church. 

They were far from thinking in ancient times 
that the support of the unfortunate could be 
confided to the civil administration alone, or to 
individual charity ; it was then thought, as I 
have already said, that it was a very proper 
thing that the hospitals should be subjected to 
the Bishops ; that is to say, that there should 
be a kind of assimilation made between the 
system of public beneficence and the hierarchy 
of the Church. Hence it was that, by virtue 
of an ancient regulation, the hospitals were 
under the control of the Bishops as well in 
temporals as in spirituals, whether the persons 
appointed to the care of the establishments 
were clerical or lay, whether the hospital had 
been erected by order of the Bishop or not. 

This is not the place to relate the vicissitudes 
which this discipline underwent, nor the dif- 
ferent causes which produced the successive 
changes ; it is enough to observe, that the fun- 
damental principle, that is, the interference of 
the ecclesiastical authority in establishments 
of beneficence, always remained unimpaired, 
and that the Church never allowed herself to 
be entirely deprived of so noble a privilege. 

M 2n2 



Never did she think that it was allowable for 
her to regard with indifference the abuses which 
were introduced on this point to the prejudice 
of the unfortunate ; wherefore she has reserved 
at least the right to remedy the evils which 
might result from the wickedness or the indo- 
lence of the administrators. The Council of 
Vienne ordains, that if the administrators of a 
hospital, lay or clerical, become relaxed in the 
exercise of their charge, proceedings shall be 
taken against them by the Bishops, who shall 
reform and restore the hospital of their own 
authority, if it has no privilege of exemption, 
and by delegation, if it has one. The Council 
of Trent also granted to Bishops the power of 
visiting the hospitals, even with the power of 
delegates of the Apostolic See in the cases fixed 
by law ; it ordains, moreover, that the adminis- 
trators, lay or clerical, shall be obliged every 
year to render their accounts to the ordinary 
of the place, unless the contrary has been pro- 
vided in the foundation ; and that if, by virtue 
of a particular privilege, custom, or statute, the 
accounts must be presented to any other than 
the ordinary, at least he shall be added to those 
who are appointed to receive them. 

Without paying attention to the different 
modifications Avhich the laws and customs of 
various countries may have introduced in this 
matter, we will say that one thing remains 
manifest, viz. the vigilance of the Church in all 
that regards beneficence ; it is her constant ten- 
dency, by virtue of her spirit and maxims, to 
take part in affairs of this kind, sometimes to 
direct them exclusively, sometimes to remedy 
the evils which may have crept in. The civil 
power acknowledged the motives of this holy 
and charitable ambition ; we see that the Em- 
peror Justinian does not hesitate to give public 
authority over the hospitals to the Bishops, 
thereby conforming to the discipline of the 
Church and the general good. 

On this point there is a remarkable fact, 
which it is necessary to mention here, in order 
to signalize its beneficent influence ; I mean, 
the regulation by which'the property of hospi- 
tals was looked upon as Church property, — a 
regulation which was very far from being a 
matter of indifference, although at first sight it 
might appear so. Their property, thereby in- 
vested with the same privileges as that of the 
Church, was protected by an inviolability so 
much the more necessary as the times were the 
more difficult, and the more abounding in out- 
rages and usurpations. The Church which, 
notwithstanding all the public troubles, pre- 
served great authority and a powerful ascen- 
dency over governments and nations, had thus 
a simple and powerful claim to extend her 
protection over the property of hospitals, and 
to withdraw them as much as possible from the 
cupidity and the rapacity of the powerful. 
And it must not be supposed that this doctrine 
was introduced with any indirect design, nor 
that this kind of community, this assimilation 
between the Church and the poor, was an un- 
heard-of novelty ; on the contrary, this assimi- 
lation was so well suited to the common order 
of things, it was so entirely founded on the 
relations between the Church and the poor, 
that if the property of the hospitals had the 
privilege of being considered as the property 
of the Church, that of the Church, on the other 



450 



NOTES. 



hand, was called the property of the poor. It 
is in these terms that the holy Fathers express 
themselves on this point: these doctrines had 
so much affected the ordinary language, that 
when, at a later period, the canonical question 
with respect to the ownership of the goods of 
the Church had to he solved, there were found 
hy the side of those who directly attributed 
this property to God, to the Pope, to the clergy, 
some who pointed out the poor as being the 
real proprietors. It is true that this opinion 
was not the most conformable to the principles 
of law ; but the mere fact of its appearing on 
the field of controversy is a matter for grave 
consideration. 

Note 24, p. 196. 

A few reflections, in the form of a note, on a 
certain maxim of toleration professed by a phi- 
losopher of the last century, R,ousseau, would 
not be out of place here ; but the analogy of 
the following chapter with that which we have 
just finished induces us to reserve them for 
note 25. The considerations to which the 
opinion of Rousseau will lead, apply to the 
question of toleration in religious matters, as 
well as to the right of coercion exercised by 
the civil and political power ; I therefore beg 
my reader to reserve for the following note 
the attention which he might be willing to af- 
ford me now. 

Note 25, p. 203. 

For the purpose of clearing up ideas on tole- 
ration as far as lay in my power, I have pre- 
sented this matter in a point of view but little 
known : in order to throw still more light upon 
it, I will say a few words on religious and civil 
intolerance, — things which are entirely differ- 
ent, although Rousseau absolutely affirms the 
•contrary. Religious or theological intolerance 
•consists in the conviction, that the only true 
religion is the Catholic, — a conviction common 
to all Catholics. Civil intolerance consists in 
not allowing in society any other religions 
than the Catholic. These two definitions are 
•sufficient to make every man of common sense 
understand that the two kinds of intolerance 
are not inseparable ; indeed, we may very 
easily conceive that men firmly convinced of 
the truth of Catholicity may tolerate those who 
profess another religion, or none at all. Reli- 
gious intolerance is an act of the mind, an act 
inseparable from faith ; indeed, whoever has a 
firm belief that his own religion is true, must 
necessarily be convinced that it is the only 
true one ,• for the truth is one. Civil intole- 
rance is an act whereby the will rejects those 
who do not profess the same religion ; this act 
bas different results, according as the intole- 
rance is in the individuals or in the govern- 
ment. On the other hand, religious tolerance 
consists in believing that all religions are true ; 
which, when rightly understood, means that 
none are true, since it is impossible for contra- 
dictory things to be true at the same time. 
Civil tolerance is, to allow men who entertain a 
different religion to live in peace. This tole- 
rance, as well as the co -relative intolerance, 
produces different effects, according as it exists 
in individuals or in the government. 



This distinction, which, from its clearness 
and simplicity, is within the reach of the most 
ordinary minds, has nevertheless been mis- 
taken by Rousseau, who affirms that it is a 
vain fiction, a chimera, which cannot be real- 
ized, and that the two kinds of intolerance 
cannot be separated from each other. Rous- 
seau might have been content with observing, 
that religious intolerance, that is to say, as I 
have explained above, the firm conviction that 
a religion is true, if it is general in a country, 
must produce, in the ordinary intercourse of 
life as well as in legislation, a certain tendency 
not to tolerate any one who thinks differently, 
principally when those who dissent are very 
limited in number ; his observation would then 
have been well founded, and would have agreed 
with the opinion which I have expressed on 
this point, when I attempted to represent the 
natural course of ideas and events in this mat- 
ter. But Rousseau does not consider things 
under this aspect: desiring to attack Catho- 
licity, he affirms that the two kinds of intole- 
rance are inseparable ; " for," says he, " it is 
impossible to live in peace with those whom 
one believes to be damned ; to love them would 
be to hate God, who punishes them." It is 
impossible to carry misrepresentation further : 
who told Rousseau that the Catholics believe 
in the damnation of any man, whoever he may 
be, as long as he lives; and that they think 
that to love a man who is in error would be to 
hate God? On the contrary, could he be igno- 
rant that it is a duty, an indispensable precept, 
a dogma, for Catholics to love all men ? Could 
he be ignorant that even children, in the first 
rudiments of Christian doctrine, learn that we 
are obliged to love our neighbor as ourselves, 
and that by this word neighbor is meant who- 
ever has gained heaven, or may gain it ; so that 
no man, so long as he lives, is excluded from 
this number ? But Rousseau will say, you are 
at least convinced that those who die in that 
fatal state are condemned. Rousseau does not 
observe that we think exactly the same with 
respect to sinners, although their sin be not 
that of heresy; now, it has not come into the 
head of any body that good Catholics cannot 
tolerate sinners, and that they consider them- 
selves under the obligation of hating them. 
"What religion shows more eagerness to convert 
the wicked? The Catholic Church is so far 
from teaching that we ought to hate them, that 
she causes to be repeated a thousand times, in 
pulpits, in books, and in conversations, those 
words whereby God shows that it is His will 
that sinners shall not perish, that He wills that 
they shall be converted and live, that there is 
more joy in heaven when one of them has done 
penance, than upon the ninety-nine just who 
need not penance. And let it not be imagined 
that the man who thus expresses himself 
against the intolerance of Catholics was the 
partizan of complete toleration; on the con- 
trary, in society, such as he imagined it, he 
did not desire toleration for those who did not 
belong to the religion 'which the civil power 
thought proper to establish. It is true that he 
is not at all anxious that the citizens should 
belong to the true religion. " Laying aside," 
he says, "political considerations, let us return 
to the right, and let us lay down principles on 
this important point. The right which the 



NOTES. 



451 



social pact gives to the sovereign over his sub- 
ject does not exceed, as I have said, the 
bounds of public utility. Subjects, therefore, 
are accountable to their sovereign for their 
opinions, inasmuch as those opinions are of 
importance to the community. Now, it is of 
great importance to the state, that every citi- 
zen should have a religion which shall make 
him love his duties; but the dogmas of that 
religion interest the state and its members only 
inasmuch as those dogmas affect morality and 
the duties which those who profess it are 
bound to perform towards others. As for the 
rest, each one may have what opinions he 
pleases, without being subject to the cogni- 
zance of the sovereign, for he has no power in 
the other world; it is not his affair what may 
be the lot of his subjects in the life to come, 
provided they be good citizens in this. There 
is, therefore, a profession of faith purely civil, 
the articles whereof it belongs to the sovereign 
to fix, not exactly as dogmas of religion, but 
as social sentiments, without which it is im- 
possible to be a good citizen or a faithful sub- 
ject. Without being able to compel any one 
to believe them, it can banish from the state 
him who does not believe them ; it can banish 
him, not as wicked, but as anti-social, as inca- 
pable of sincerely loving the laws and justice, 
and of sacrificing his life to his duty. If any 
one, after having publicly acknowledged these 
dogmas, conducts himself as if he did not be- 
lieve them, let him be punished with death ; he 
has committed the greatest of crimes, he has 
lied against the laws." (Du Contrat Social, 1. 
iv. c. 8.) 

Such, then, is the final result of the toleration 
of Rousseau, viz. to give to the sovereign the 
power of fixing articles of faith, to grant to him 
the right of punishing with banishment, or 
even death, those who will not conform to the 
decisions of this new Pope, or who shall violate 
after having embraced them. However strange 
the doctrine of Rousseau may appear, it is not 
excluded from the general system of those who 
do not acknowledge the supremacy of authority 
in religious matters. When this supremacy is to 
be attributed to the Catholic Church, or its 
head, it is rejected ; and, by the most striking 
contradiction, it is granted to the civil power. 
It is very singular that Rousseau, when ban- 
ishing or putting to death the man who quits 
the religion fashioned by the sovereign, does 
not wish him to be punished as impious, but as 
anti-social. Rousseau, following an impulse 
very natural in him, did not wish that impiety 
should be at all taken into account when 
punishments were to be inflicted; but of what 
consequence is the name given to his crime to 
the man who is banished or put to death? In 
the same chapter, he allows an expression to 
escape him, which reveals at once the object 
which he had in view in all this show of philo- 
sophy : "Whoever dares to affirm that out of 
the Church there is no salvation, ought to be 
driven from the state." Which means, in other 
words, that toleration ought to be given to all 
except Catholics. It has been said, that the 
Contrat Social was the code of the French 
revolution; and, indeed, the latter did not for- 
get what the tolerant legislator has prescribed 
with respect to Catholics. Few persons now 
venture to declare themselves the disciples of 



the philosopher of Geneva, although some of 
his timid partisans still lavish on him unmea- 
sured eulogies. Let us have sufficient confi- 
dence in the good sense of the human race, to 
hope that all posterity, with a unanimous voice, 
will confirm the stamp of ignominy with which 
all men of sense have already marked that 
turbulent sophist, the impudent author of the 
Confessions. 

When comparing Protestantism with Catho- 
licity, I was obliged to treat of intolerance, as 
it is one of the reproaches which are most fre- 
quently made against the Catholic religion; 
but my respect for truth compels me to state, 
that all Protestants have not preached universal 
toleration ; and that many of them have ac- 
knowledged the right of checking and punishing 
certain errors. Grotius, Puffendorf, and some 
more of the wisest men that Protestantism can 
boast of, are agreed on this point; therein they 
have followed the example of all antiquity, 
which, in theory as well as in practice, has 
constantly conformed to these principles. A 
cry has been raised against the intolerance of 
Catholics, as if they had been the first to teach 
it to the world ; as if intolerance was a cursed 
monster, which was engendered only where the 
Catholic Church prevailed. In default of any 
other reason, good faith at least required that 
it should not be forgotten that the principle of 
universal toleration was never acknowledged 
in any part of the world ; the books of philo- 
sophers, and the codes of legislators, contain 
the principle of intolerance with more or less 
rigor. Whether it were desired to condemn 
this principle as false, or to limit it, or to leave 
it without application, it is clear that an accu- 
sation ought not to have been made against the 
Catholic Church in particular, on account of 
a doctrine and conduct, wherein she only con- 
formed to the example of the whole human 
race. Refined as well as barbarous nations 
would be culpable therein, if there were any 
crime; and the stigma, far from deserving to 
fall upon governments directed by Catholicity, 
or on Catholic writers, ought to be inflicted on 
all the governments of antiquity, including 
those of Greece and Rome; on all the ancient 
sages, including Plato, Cicero, and Seneca ; on 
modern governments and sages, including Pro- 
testants. If men had had this present to their 
minds, the doctrine would not have appeared 
so erroneous, nor the facts so black ; they 
would have seen that intolerance, as old as the 
world, was not the invention of Catholics, and 
that the whole world, ought to bear the re- 
sponsibility of it. 

Assuredly the toleration which, in our days, 
has become so general, from causes previously 
pointed out, will not be affected by the doc- 
trines, more or less severe, more or less indul- 
gent, which shall be proclaimed in this matter; 
but for the very reason, that intolerance, such 
as it was practised in other times, has at last 
become a mere historical fact, whereof no one 
can fear the re-appearance, it is proper to enter 
into an attentive examination of questions of 
this kind, in order to remove the reproach 
which her enemies have attempted to cast upon 
the Catholic Church. 

The recollection of the encyclical letter of 
the Pope against tho doctrines of M. de La- 
mennais, and the profound wisdom contained 



452 



NOTES. 



therein appropriately presents itself here. 
That writer maintained that universal tolera- 
tion, the absolute liberty of worship, is the 1 
normal and legitimate state of society, — a state 
which cannot be changed without injury to the 
rights of the man and the citizen. M. de La- 
mennais, combatting the encyclical letter, 
attempted to show that it established new doc- 
trines, and attacked the liberty of nations. 
No ; the Pope, in his encyclical letter, does not j 
maintain any other doctrines than those which 
have been professed up to this time by the ; 
Church — we may say by all governments — 
with respect to toleration. No government 
can sustain itself if it is refused the right of \ 
repressing doctrines dangerous to social order, ! 
whether those doctrines are covered with the 
mantle of philosophy, or disguised under the 
veil of religion. The liberty of man is not 
thereby assailed ; for the only liberty which is 
worthy of the name, is liberty in conformity 
with reason. The Pope did not say that go- 
vernments cannot, in certain cases, tolerate 
different religions ; but he did not allow it to 
be established as a principle, that absolute ! 
toleration is an obligation on all governments. ! 
This proposition is contrary to sound religious 
doctrines, to reason, to the practice of all 
governments, in all times and countries, and 
the good sense of mankind. The talent and 
eloquence of the unfortunate author have not j 
availed against this, and the Pope has obtained I 
the most solemn assent of all sensible men of 
all creeds ; while the man of genius, covering ! 
his brow with the shades of obstinacy, has not j 
feared to seize upon the ignoble arms of so- ' 
phistry. Unhappy genius ! who scarcely pre- I 
serves a shadow of himself, who has folded up 
the splendid wings on which he sailed through 
the azure sky, and now, like a bird of evil j 
omen, broods over the impure waters of a soli- l 
tary lake. 

Note 26, p. 219. 

When speaking of the Spanish Inquisition, 
I do not undertake to defend all its acts either 
in point of justice, or of the public advantage. 
Without denying the peculiar circumstances 
in which this institution was placed, I think 
that it would have done much better, after the 
example of the Inquisition of Rome, to avoid 
as much as possible the effusion of blood. It 
might have perfectly watched over the pre- I 
servation of the faith, prevented the evils ! 
wherewith religion was threatened by the Moors I 
and the Jews, and preserved Spain from Pro- 
testantism, without employing that excessive 
rigor, which drew upon it the severe and de- 
served reprimands and admonitions of the 
Sovereign Pontiffs, provoked the complaints 
of the people, made so many accused and con- 
demned persons appeal to Rome, and furnished 
the adversaries of Catholicity with a pretext 
for charging that religion with being sangui- 
nary which has a horror of the effusion of 
blood. I repeat, that the Catholic religion is 
not responsible for any of the excesses which 
have been committed in her name ; and when 
men speak of the Inquisition, they ought not 
to fix their eyes principally on that of Spain, 
but on that of Rome. There, where the Sove- 
reign Pontiff resides, and where they best un- 



derstand how the principle of intolerance 
should be understood, and what use ought to 
be made of it, the Inquisition has been mild 
and indulgent in the extreme. Rome is the 
part of the world where humanity has suf- 
fered the least for the sake of religion ; and 
that, without the exception of any countries, 
either of those where the Inquisition has ex- 
isted, or of those where it has been unknown-, 
of those where Catholicity has been predomi- 
nant, or where Protestantism has triumphed. 
This fact, which cannot be denied, should suffice 
to convince every sincere man what is the 
spirit of Catholicity in this matter. 

I make these remarks in order to show my 
impartiality, to prove that I am not ignorant 
of evils, and that I do not hesitate to admit 
them wherever I find them. Notwithstanding 
this, I am desirous that the facts and the ob- 
servations contained in the text, as well with 
respect to the Inquisition itself, and to the dif- 
ferent epochs of its duration, as to the policy 
of the kings who founded and established it, 
shall not be forgotten. The same desire makes 
me transcribe here a few documents likely to 
throw a stronger light upon this important sub- 
ject. In the first place, I will quote the 
preamble of the Pragmatic Sanction of the 
Catholic princes Ferdinand and Isabella, for 
the explusion of the Jews ; we there find stat- 
ed in a few words, the outrages which the Jews 
inflicted on religion, and the dangers with 
which they threatened the state. 

" Book viii. chap. 2, second law of the new 
Recopilacion. Don Ferdinand and Donna Isa- 
bella, at Granada, 30th March, 1492. Prag- 
matic Sanction. 

" Having been informed that there existed in 
these kingdoms bad Christians, who judaized 
and apostatized from our holy Catholic faith, 
whereof the communication between the Jews 
and Christians was in great part the cause, we 
ordained, in the Cortes held by us in Toledo, 
in 1480, that the Jews in all the cities, towns, 
and other places of our kingdoms and lordships, 
should be confined in the Juiferies and places 
appointed for them to live and dwell in, hop- 
ing that this separation would serve as a re- 
medy ; we also provided and gave orders that 
an Inquisition should be appointed in our said 
kingdoms : which Inquisition, as you know, is 
and has been practised for more than twelve 
years, and has discovered a great number of 
delinquents, as is notorious. As we have been 
informed by the Inquisitors, and many other 
religious persons, lay and ecclesiastical, it is 
certain that great injury to the Christians had 
been and is the result of the participation, in- 
tercourse, and communication which they have 
had, and still have, with the Jews ; it has been 
proved that the latter, by all the means in their 
power, constantly labor to subvert the faith 
of Christians, to withdraw them from our holy 
Catholic faith, to lead them away from it, to 
attract them, and to pervert them to their own 
noxious creed and opinions j instructing them 
in the ceremonies and observances of their own 
law ; holding meetings to teach them what 
they ought to believe and observe according to 
that law ; taking care to circumcise them and 
their children, giving them books in order to 
recite their prayers, teaching them the fasts 
which they ought to observe, assembling to 



NOTES. 



453 



read with them, teaching them the histories of 
their laws : notifying to them the Paschal 
times before they arrive, admonishing them as 
to what they ought to do and observe during 
those times ; giving them, bringing for them, 
from their own homes, the bread of azimes, 
meats killed according to their ceremonies; 
instructing them as to the things from which 
they ought to abstain, in order to obey the law, 
as well in eating as in other things ; persuad- 
ing them, as far as they can, to adopt and keep 
the Law of Moses, and making them under- 
stand that no other law than that is true. All 
these things are certain from numerous testi- 
monies, from the acknowledgments of the Jews 
themselves, and of those who have been per- 
verted and deceived by them, which has inflict- 
ed great injury, detriment, and dishonor on 
our holy Catholic faith. Although we were 
already informed of these things from many 
quarters, and although we were aware that the 
real remedy for all these evils and inconveni- 
ences was to place an insurmountable barrier 
to the communication of the Jews with the 
Christians, and to banish the Jews from our 
kingdoms, we wished to be satisfied with en- 
joining them to quit all the cities, towns, and 
places of Andalusia, where it seemed that 
they had done the most mischief, believing 
that that would be enough to hinder those of 
the other cities, towns, and places of our king- 
doms and lordships from doing and committing 
what has been mentioned. But being inform- 
ed that this measure, as well as the acts of 
justice exercised on some of the Jews who 
were found guilty of these offences and crimes 
against our holy Catholic faith, do not suffice 
to remedy the evil thoroughly; for the purpose 
of obviatiug and abolishing so great an oppro- 
brium, such an offence against the faith and 
the Christian religion, since it appears that the 
same Jews, with a fatal ardor, redouble their 
perverse attempts wherever they live and asso- 
eiate : wishing to suppress the occasion of of- 
fending more against our holy Catholic faith, 
as well on account of those persons whom it 
has pleased God up to this time to preserve, a» 
of those who, after having fallen, have repent- 
e 1 and returned to our holy mother the Church : 
wishing to prevent the offences which, on ac- 
count of the weakness of our human nature, 
and the suggestions of the devil, which conti- 
nual I3- make war on us, might easily occur, if 
the principal cause of the evil were not remov- 
ed by the expulsion of the Jews from our 
kingdoms ; considering, besides, that when a 
great and detestable crime has been committed 
by some members of a college or university, it 
La reasonable that that college or that univer- 
sity should be dissolved and destroyed, that 
some may be punished on account of the 
others, and the lesser number on account of 
the greater ; that those who pervert the good 
and virtuous mode of life of cities and towns, 
by a contagion which may injure others, may 
be banished from those towns ; and that if it 
be allowed to act thus for other slight causes 
prejudicial to the state, there is still more rea- 
son to allow it for the greatest, the most dan- 
gerous, the most contagious of crimes, that 
which is in question : for all these reasons we, 
having consulted our Council, and taken the 
advice of some prelates/' &c. 



We are not now examining whether or not 
there is any exaggeration in these imputations 
' against the Jews, although, according to all 
j appearances, there must have been a great 
[ deal of foundation for them, in consequence of 
the situation in which the two rival nations 
I were placed. Observe, besides, that if the 
preamble of the Pragmatic Sanction is silent 
' with respect to a hundred accusations brought 
against the Jews by the generality of the 
people, the report of these crimes had not the 
less weight with the public ; consequently, the 
\ situation of the Jews was aggravated in an ex- 
; traordinary degree, and the princes were so 
much the more inclined to treat them with se- 
verity. 

With respect to the mistrust with which the 
Moors and their descendants must have been 
. regarded, besides the facts pointed out above, 
I others might be related which show the dispo- 
sition of men's minds to see in the presence of 
these men a permanent conspiracy against the 
Christians. Almost a century had elapsed since 
' the conquest of Granada, and it was still feared 
that this kingdom might be the centre of plots 
contrived by the Moors against the Christians, 
\ the source of perfidious projects, and the place 
whence came the means of maltreating in all 
ways the defenceless persons upon our coasts. 
Thus spoke Philip IL in 1567 : 
" Book viii. chap. 2, of the new Becopilaeion. 
•• Law xx., which decrees severe punish- 
ments against the inhabitants of the kingdom 
of Granada who shall have hidden, received, 
or favored the Turks, Moors, or Jews, or given 
them intelligence, or corresponded with them. 
" D. Philip IL, Madrid, 10 December, 1567. 
"Having been informed that, notwithstand- 
ing what has been ordained by us, as well by 
sea as by land, particularly for the kingdom 
of Granada, for the purpose of insuring the 
defence and security of our kingdoms, the 
, Turks, Moors, and corsairs have already com- 
| mitted, and still commit, in the ports of this 
kingdom, on the coasts, in maritime places, 
j and those bordering on the sea, robberies, mis- 
deeds, injuries, and seizures of Christians ; 
evils which are notorious, and which, it is said, 
1 have been, and are, committed with ease and 
security, by favor of the intercourse and un- 
derstanding which the ravishers have had, and 
still have, with some of the inhabitants of the 
: country, who give them intelligence, guide 
; them, receive them, hide them, and lend them 
favor and assistance ; some of them even going 
away with the Moors and Turks, leading away 
j and carrying with them their wives, their chil- 
; dren, their goods, Christian captives, and the 
things which they were able to ravish from the 
Christians ; while other inhabitants of the 
same kingdom, who have participated in these 
projects, or have been acquainted with them, 
remain in the country, without having been or 
being punished ; for it appears that measures 
are not executed with due severity, nor as com- 
pletely, or with as much care as they ought to 
be : as, moreover, it seems very difficult to get 
accurate information, as it appears that even 
the justices and the judges, to whom it belongs 
to make inquiries and to punish, have displayed 
remissness and negligence in their employ- 
ment ; — this having been agitated and discuss- 
ed in our Council, with the view of providing, 



454 



NOTES. 



as is proper in a thing of such great import- 
ance, for the service of God our Master, for 
our own and the public good ; the thing hav- 
ing been consulted upon by us, it has been 
agreed that we ought to publish this present 
letter," <fcc. 

Years passed away ; the hatred between the 
two nations still endured ; in spite of the nu- 
merous checks which the Mahometan race had 
received, the Christians were not satisfied. It 
was very probable that a nation who had suf- 
fered, and might still suffer, such great humi- 
liations, would attempt to avenge them. It is 
also by no means difficult to believe in the rea- 
lity of the conspiracies which were charged 
against the Moors. However this may be, the 
report of these conspiracies was general, and 
the government was seriously alarmed by them. 
Those who desire a proof of this, may read 
what Philip III. said, in 1609, in the law which 
expelled the Moriscoes. 

"Book viii. chap. 2, of the new Recopila- 
cion. 

" Law xxv. By virtue of which the Moris- 
coes were banished from the kingdom : causes 
of this expulsion — means which were adopted 
for the execution of the measure. 

" D. Philip III., Madrid, 9 December, 1609. 

" For a long time it has been endeavored to 
save the Moriscoes in these kingdoms : the 
holy office of the Inquisition has inflicted 
divers punishments ; numerous edicts of mercy 
have been granted ; neither means nor dili- 
gence have been spared to instruct them in 
our holy faith, without being able to obtain the 
desired result, for none of them have been 
converted. On the contrary, their obstinacy 
has increased ; the peril which threatens our 
kingdoms, if we keep the Moriscoes, has been 
represented to us by persons very well informed 
and full of the fear of God, who, thinking it 
proper that a prompt remedy should be applied 
to this evil, have represented to us that the 
delay might be charged upon our royal con- 
science, considering the grave offences which 
our Lord receives from that people. We have 
been assured that we might, without scruple, 
punish them in their lives and properties, since 
they were convicted by their continued offences 
of being heretics, apostates, and traitors of 
lese-majeste divine and human. Although it 
would have been allowable to proceed against 
them with the rigor which their offences de- 
serve, nevertheless, desiring to bring them 
back by means of mildness and mercy, I or- 
dained, in the city and kingdom of Valencia, 
an assembly of the patriarchs, and other pre- 
lates and wise men, in order to ascertain what 
could be resolved upon and settled ; but having 
learned that, at the very time they were en- 
gaged in remedying the evil, the Moriscoes of 
the said kingdom of Valencia, and of our other 
domains, continued to urge forward their per- 
nicious projects ; knowing, moreover, from cor- 
rect and certain intelligence, that they had 
sent to treat at Constantinople with the Turks, 
and at Morocco with the king, Muley Fidon, 
in order that there might be sent into the 
kingdom of Spain the greatest number of 
forces possible to aid and assist them ; being 
sure that there would be found in our kingdom 
more than 150,000 men, as good Moors as those 
from the coasts of Barbary, all ready to assist 



them with their lives and fortunes, whereby 
they were persuaded of the facility of the en- 
terprise ; knowing that the same treaties have 
been attempted with heretics and other princes 
our enemies: considering all that we have just 
said, and to fulfill the obligation which we are 
under of preserving and maintaining the holy 
Roman Catholic faith in our kingdoms, as well 
as the security, peace, and repose of the said 
kingdoms, with the counsel and advice of 
learned men, and others, very zealous for the 
service of God and for our own, we ordain 
that all the Moriscoes, inhabitants of these 
kingdoms, men, women, and children, of all 
conditions," <tc. 

I have said that the Popes labored, from the 
commencement, to soften the rigors of the 
Spanish Inquisition, sometimes by admonish- 
ing the kings and inquisitors, sometimes by 
giving the accused and condemned a right of 
appeal. The kings feared that the religious 
innovations would produce a public distur- 
bance ; I add, that their policy embarrassed 
the Popes, and prevented them from carrying 
as far as they would have wished their measures 
of mildness and indulgence. Among the other 
documents which support this assertion, I will 
cite one which proves the irritation of the 

: Spanish kings at the assistance which the ac- 
cused found at Rome. 

'* Book viii. chap. 3, law 2, of the new Re- 
copilacion, enjoining persons condemned by 
the Inquisition, and absent from these king- 
doms, not to return there under pain of death 
and losing their goods. 

" D. Ferdinand and D. Isabella, at Sara- 
gossa, 2d August, 1498. Pragmatic Sanction. 

" Some persons condemned as heretics by the 
Inquisition have absented themselves from our 
kingdoms, and have gone to other countries, 
where, by means of false reports and undue 
formalities, they have surreptitiously obtained 
exemptions, absolutions, mandates, securities, 
and other privileges, in order to be exempt 
from the condemnations and punishments 

j which they had incurred, and to remain in 
their errors, which, nevertheless, does not pre- 
vent their attempting to return to these king- 
doms, wherefore, wishing to extirpate so great 
an evil, we command these condemned persons 
not to be so bold as to return. Let them not 
return into our kingdoms and lordships, by any 
way, in any manner, for any cause or reason 

j whatsoever, under pain of death and the loss 

I of their goods : which punishment we will and 
ordain to be incurred by the act itself. One- 

! third of the property shall be for the persons 

I who shall have denounced, another for the 
courts, and the third for our exchequer. When- 

j ever the said justices, in their own places and 
jurisdiction, shall know that any of the said 
persons are in any part of their jurisdiction, 
we order all and each of them, without excep- 
tion, to go to the place where such persons are, 
without being otherwise called upon, to appre- 
hend them forcibly and immediately, and with- 
out delay to execute, and cause to be executed, 
on them and their properties the punishments 
which we have appointed ; and this notwith- 
standing all exemption, reconciliation, securi- 
ties, and other privileges which they may have, 
these privileges, in the present case, and with 
respect to the said penalties, not availing them. 



NOTES. 



455 



We order them to do and accomplish this un- 
der pain of the loss and confiscation of all 
their property. The same penalty shall be in- 
curred by all other persons who shall have 
hidden or received the said condemned persons, 
and who knowing that they were so, shall not 
have given information to our courts. "We 
order all great men and councillors, and other 
persons of our kingdoms, to give favor and 
assistance to our courts, whenever it shall be 
demanded and required from them, to accom- 
plish and execute what has been said above, 
under the penalties which the courts them- 
selves shall appoint on this subject." 

We see from this document, that, after the 
year 1498, things had reached such a point, 
that the kings attempted to maintain against 
every one all the rigor of the Inquisition, and 
that they were offended that the Popes inter- 
fered to soften it. It will be understood there- 
by whence proceeded the harshness with which 
the guilty were treated ; and this shows us one 
of the causes which made the Inquisition 
sometimes use its power with excessive sever- 
ity. Although it was not a mere instrument 
of the policy of kings, as some have said, the 
Inquisition felt more or less the influence of 
that policy; and we know that policy, when 
about to defeat an adversary, does not com- 
monly display an excess of compassion. If 
the Spanish Inquisition had been at that time 
under the exclusive authority and direction of 
the Popes, it would have been infinitely milder 
and more moderate in its method of acting. 

At that time the object ardently desired by 
the kings of Spain was, to obtain that the 
judgments of the Inquisition should be defini- 
tive in Spain, without appeal to Rome ; Queen 
Isabella had expressly demanded this of the 
Pope. The Sovereign Pontiffs would not ac- 
cede to these solicitations, no doubt fearing the 
abuse which might be made of so fearful an 
arm when the restraint of the moderating 
power should become wanting. 

It will be understood from the facts which I 
have just quoted, how much reason I had to 
say that, if you excuse the conduct of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella with respect to the Inquisi- 
tion, you must not condemn that of Philip II., 
since the Catholic sovereigns showed them- 
selves still more harsh and severe than the 
latter monarch. I have already pointed out 
the reason why the conduct of Philip II. has 
been so rigorously condemned ; but it is also 
necessary to show why there has been a sort 
of obstinacy in excusing that of Ferdinand 
and Isabella. 

When it is wished to falsify an historical 
fact by calumniating a person or an institution, 
it is necessary to begin with an affectation of 
impartiality and good faith ; great success is 
obtained in this by manifesting indulgence for 
the same thing which it is desired to condemn, 
but taking care that this indulgence has strong- 
ly the appearance of being a concession gratu- 
itously made to our adversaries, or of a sacri- 
fice of our opinions, of our feelings, on the 
altars of reason and justice, which are our 
guide and our idol. We thus predispose our 
hearers or readers to regard the condemnation 
which we are about to pronounce as a judg- 
ment dictated by the strictest justice ; a judg- 
ment in which neither passion, nor partiality, 



nor perverse views, have any part. How can 
we doubt the good faith, the love of truth, the 
impartiality of the man who begins by excus- 
ing what, according to all appearances, and 
considering his opinions, ought to be the object 
of his anathemas ? Such is the situation of 
the men of whom we speak. They intended 
to attack the Inquisition ; now it happened that 
the protectress, and, in some sort, the found- 
ress of that tribunal was Queen Isabella, — that 
distinguished name which Spaniards have 
always pronounced with respect, that immor- 
tal queen, one of the noblest ornaments of our 
history. What was to be done in this difficul- 
ty? The means were simple. Although the 
Jews and heretics had been treated with the 
greatest severity in the time of the Catholic 
sovereigns, and although they had carried 
severity further than all those who have suc- 
ceeded them, it was necessary to close the eye 
to these facts, to excuse the conduct of these 
sovereigns, and to point out the important mat- 
ters which urged them to employ the rigors 
of justice. They thus avoided the difficulty, 
— for it was one to cast a stigma on the memo- 
ry of a great queen cherished and respected 
by all Spaniards, — and they thus prepared the 
way for merciless accusations against Philip 
II. That monarch had the unanimous cry of 
all Protestants against him, for the simple 
reason that he had been their most powerful 
adversary; it would therefore cost nothing to 
make all the weight of execration fall upon 
him. The enigma is thus explained. Such is 
the cause of a partiality so .unjust, — such is 
the hypocrisy of that opinion which, while ex- 
cusing the Catholic sovereigns, condemns Phi- 
lip II. without appeal. 

I have not attempted to justify the policy 
of this monarch in all respects; but I have 
presented a few considerations which may 
serve to mitigate the violent attacks made 
upon him by his adversaries : it only remains 
for me to transcribe here the documents to 
which I alluded when I said that the Inquisi- 
tion was not a mere instrument of the policy 
of Philip II., and that this prince did not in- 
tend to establish a system of obscurantisme in 
Spain. 

Don Antonio Perez, in his Relations, gives a 
letter of the confessor of the king, Fray Diego 
de Chaves, in which letter the latter affirms 
that the secular prince has power over the lives 
of his subjects and vassals, and adds in a note : 
" I shall not undertake to relate all that I have 
heard said on the subject of the condemnation 
of some of these propositions ; this is not within 
my province. Those who are concerned in this 
will at once understand the import of my words. 
I shall content myself with saying that, at the 
time when I was at Madrid, the Inquisition con- 
demned the following proposition : a preacher 
— it matters not that I should mention his 
name — maintained in a sermon, at St. Jerome's, 
in Madrid, in presence of the Catholic king, 
that kings have an absolute power over the per - 
sons of their subjects, as ivell as over their pro- 
perties. Besides some other separate matters, 
the preacher was condemned to retract this 
publicly, in the same place, with all the cere- 
monies of a juridical act, which he did in the 
same pulpit, saying that he had advanced such 
a proposition on such a day, and that he re- 



456 



NOTES. 



tracted it as erroneous. 1 For, messieurs,' said , 
he, reading literally from a paper, ' kings have 
no other power over their subjects than what is 
given them by the divine and human law ; they 
have none proceeding from their own free and 
absolute will.' I even know who condemned 
the proposition, and appointed the words which 
the accused, to the great gratification of the 
formei - , was obliged to pronounce ; indeed, he 
rejoiced to see torn up so poisonous a weed, 
which he felt was increasing, as the event 
proved. Master Fray Hernando del Castillo 
(I will mention his name) was the one who 
prescribed what the accused was to say ; he 
was consultee of the holy office, and' preacher 
to the king ; he was a man of singular learning 
and eloquence, very well known and esteemed 
by his own nation, and especially by the Ita- 
lians. Dr. Velasco, an important personage of 
that time, said of him, that the guitar in the 
hands of Fabricio Dentici was not so sweet as 
the tongue of Master Fray Hernandez del Cas- 
tillo to the ears of those who heard him." And 
at page 47 in the text : " I know," says Don 
Antonio Perez, " that they were denominated 
very scandalous by persons very important by 
their rank, their learning, and their Christian 
purity of heart; there was one among them 
who had held supreme rank in the spiritual 
order in Spain, and had previously filled an 
office in the tribunal of the Inquisition." Perez 
afterwards says, that this person was the nun- 
cio of his Holiness. (Relaciones de Anton. Perez. 
Paris, 1624.) 

The letter of Philip II. to Doctor D. Benito 
Arias Montano contains the following, in ad- 
dition to the remarkable passage which we have 
quoted. 

" Concerning what you, Dr. &c, my chaplain, 
will have to do at Antwerp, whither we send 
you. Dated at Madrid, 25th March, 1568. 

"Besides that you will render this good office 
and service to the said Plantinus, know that, 
from this time, in proportion as the six thousand 
crowns are recovered from his hands, I apply 
them to buy books for the monastery of St. 
Laurent-le-Royal, of the order of St. Jerome, 
which I am building near the Escurial, as you 
know. Thus you are admonished that such is 
my intention ; you will comply with this, and 
will be diligent in collecting all the choice 
books, printed and MS., that your excellent 
discernment shall think proper, in order to bring 
them and place them in the library of the said 
monastery. Indeed, it is one of the chief pos- 
sessions which I would wish to leave to the 
religious who are intended to dwell there, for 
it is the most useful and necessary. Wherefore 
I have also commanded my ambassador in 
France, D. Francis de Alaba, to collect the best 
books which he shall be able in that kingdom: 
you will communicate with him on that subject. 
I will direct him to communicate in writing 
also with you, to send you a list of the books 
which are to be had, as well as their price, be- 
fore buying them ; you will advise him as to 
which he had better take or leave, and what 
he may give for such. He will send to you at 
Antwerp those which he has thus bought ; you 
will acknowledge them, and forward them here, 
all at once, at the proper time." 

During the reign of Philip II., — of that 
prince who is represented to us as one of the | 



i principal authors of obscurantisme, — choice 
works, both printed and MS., were sought in 
foreign countries, in order to enrich the Span- 
ish libraries ; in our age, which we call that 
of enlightenment, the libraries of Spain have 
been plundered, and their treasures have gone 
to add to those of foreigners. Who is ignorant 
of the collections which have been made of 
our books and MS., in England? Consult the 
catalogues of the British Museum and other 
private libraries. The author of these lines 
states only what he has seen with his own eyes 
— what he has heard lamented by persons 
worthy of respect. While we show so much 
negligence in preserving our treasures, let us 
not be so unjust and so puerile as to lose our 
time in vain declamation against those who 
have bequeathed them to us. 

Appendix. 

A few icords on Puigblanch, Villeneuve, and 
Llorente. 

Here, in the Spanish edition, the notes re- 
lating to the Inquisition terminate; but I think 
it may not be useless in the French edition to 
add a few words, to explain the matter to my 
foreign readers : little versed as they are in 
the knowledge of our affairs, they might often 
happen to drink at corrupted sources, which 
they imagine to be pure and salutary. Le 
Compte de Maistre, with respect to the Span- 
ish Inquisition, cites L* Inquisition devoile.e de 
Natanael Jomtob : I will say a few words, lest 
the authority of the author who quotes should 
give too much importance to him who is quoted. 
This Xatanael Jomtob is no other than Dr. D. 
Antonio Puigblanch, a Spaniard, who died not 
long ago in London. This author, in the pro- 
logue to his works published in London, himself 
explains the reason which made him adopt a 
strange name. " These Hebrew words," he says, 
"are two proper significative names, which, 
together, form the inscription, Dedit Dens diem 
bonum. I wished thus to express the happiness 
of being able to speak and write freely against 
the tribunal of the Inquisition, and the happi- 
ness of seeing it abolished." (Prolog, p. cxv.) 

In order that the reader may judge of the 
value that belongs to this work, I will observe, 
that the first qualification in an historian, es- 
pecially on a matter so delicate, is complete 
impartiality united to a great fund of modera- 
tion : these two qualifications were wanting in 
M. Puigblanch, who was lamentably infected 
with the contrary faults. It is impossible to 
be more violent than he is against ail that he 
meets with ; his ill-humor and anger blind 
him ; he attacks institutions and men with per- 
fect fury ; he respects nothing : add to this a 
pitiable vanity. It would be easy for me to 
produce here various proofs of the impiety of 
Puigblanch ; but I should fear to soil rny pa- 
per by transcribing the impious satires of this 
man. This is enough to give an idea of the 
point of view in which he could regard things 
relating to religious affairs and to the clergy. 
He misses no opportunity of ridiculing the 
ministers of religion, of indulging in invectives 
against them, and of giving vent to the in- 
comprehensible rage which he has against 
them. The unbecoming manner in which he 
treats his adversaries, real or imaginary, even 



NOTES. 



457 



when they have more or less sympathy with 
his opinions, is a good apology for the things 
which he combats on the other hand. I cannot 
repeat his words here, so coarse are they ; be- 
sides, they attack persons who are still living ; 
suffice it to say, that not content with insulting 
them in the most disgusting way, Puigblanch 
descends so low as to reproach them with their 
physical defects, after the manner of a market- 
woman. What was to be hoped from such a 
mind in a matter so important and delicate ? 
Were such dispositions suitable for an historian 
of the Inquisition, who published his work 
precisely in the year 1811, that is to say, at a 
time of reaction and effervescence ? With re- 
spect to talent and knowledge, I will not refuse 
to M. Puigblanch either reading or erudition, 
or a certain aptitude for criticism, yet it must 
not be forgotten that his mind was far from 
being so cultivated as it ought to have been, 
in order to keep pace with our age. A work 
like his required that he should have followed 
the march of the times, that he should not have 
been altogether devoid of the philosophy of 
history, that he should not have relied exclu- 
sively upon certain books, while accumulating 
crude erudition, and incessantly perusing ety- 
mologies and grammatical questions : this is 
what was wanting in M. Puigblanch. To sum 
up all in one sentence, I have found the fol- 
lowing description, which I heard in London, 
from the mouth of a distinguished man who 
had intercourse with Puigblanch for a long 
time, to be perfectly correct: "Puigblanch," 
he told me, " knew what a learned man of the 
seventeenth century in Spain might have 
known." The Christian reader may imagine 
what was the result of the amalgamation of 
this kind of instruction with all the bile of 
Voltairian passion. , 

D. Joaquin Lorenzo Villanueva is another of 
those Spaniards who have distinguished them- 
selves by declaiming against the Inquisition ; 
in his Literary Life (Vida Literaria) he had 
asserted that the public information on this 
question, and the abolition of that famous tri- 
bunal, were in great part owing to him. Puig- 
blanch strongly recriminates against Villanu- 
eva, who attempted to usurp his glory by 
availing himself of his work without acknow- 
ledging it, and other similar things, which do 
as little honor to the one as to the other. Vil- 
lanueva has been already judged in Spain by 
all sensible men ; foreigners who desire to un- 
derstand this question will be under the un- 
pleasant obligation of reading the two large 
volumes in 8vo, in which he has written his 
literary life. The bile of Villanueva against 
all the clergy who are not of his coterie, and, 
above all, his hatred against Rome, show them- 
selves at every page of his book, and from 
time to time produce explosions which are 
much too violent to accord with the extreme 
mildness which he is pleased to affect. More- 
over, let the reader prepare and arm himself 
with patience, if he undertake to get through 
these two large volumes, which contain, writ- 
ten by the man himself, who so well deserved 
it, the most complete panegyric of his pro- 
found knowledge, his vast erudition, his great 
humility, and his virtues of all kinds. It cer- 
tainly would have been very well, if the 
author, with a slight recollection of modesty, 
58 2 



had not candidly told us, that they went so far 
as to call him the father of the poor, that his 
poetic fire was not cooled by age, that his 
activity in labor did not allow him to remain 
idle, even in the midst of the greatest perse- 
cutions ; in fine, if he had not undertaken to 
make us believe that all his life was a con- 
tinual sacrifice on the altars of knowledge and 
virtue. To those who desire to derive their 
information from Villanueva, we have a right 
to say : Do not forget that you must beware 
of believing all — that the tree is known by its 
fruits — that the wolf often assumes sheep's 
clothing. 

Among those who have made the most noise 
with respect to the Inquisition, is Llorente, the 
author of a history of that famous institution. 
The impartiality which may be expected from 
this writer shows itself every moment in his 
book, which has evidently been written for the 
purpose of blackening, as much as possible, 
the Catholic clergy and the Holy See. Hap- 
pily the author has made himself too well 
known by his other works, for any Catholic to 
allow himself to be deceived by his insidious 
writings. No one, especially in Spain, is igno- 
rant of the project of the religious constitution 
with which Llorente attempted to disturb con- 
sciences, and introduce schism and heresy into 

I our country. Does he who attempts to destroy 

J the universal discipline established from the 
earliest ages, who expresses doubts on the most 
sacred mysteries of our holy religion, who con- 
tests the infallible authority of the Church, 
and does not hold the first four (Ecumenical 

| Councils to be legitimate, deserve the least 
credit when writing the history of the Inqui- 
sition, — that history which affords so many op- 
portunities of declaiming against the clergy 
and against Rome ? Here is a proof of his 
impartiality. In his history of the Inquisi- 
tion, he could not avoid relating the conduct 
of the Apostolic See in the early times of the 
Inquisition in Spain, and the efforts made by 
the Holy See for the purpose of softening the 
rigors of that tribunal, the appeals which were 

! made, and the merciful judgments which were 
almost always obtained at Rome ,• all these facts 
clearly showed that Rome, far from being, as 

j he pretended, a monster of cruelty, was rather 
a model of mildness and prudence. How do 
you think he gets out of this difficulty ? By 
saying, that what the Court of Rome wanted 
was, to extort money from us. An explanation 
as unworthy as it is impudent — an odious means 
of depriving the most beneficent and generous 
actions of their lustre, and which shows a fixed 
design to find evil every where, even to the ex- 
tent of assigning evil motives for benefits which 
are the most worthy of gratitude. 

With respect to Llorente, I am unwilling to 
pass over in silence a remarkable fact which 
he has had the kindness to communicate to the 
public in the same work. King Joseph, the 
intruder, intrusted Llorente, by express orders, 
with the archives of the Supreme Council and 
the Tribunal of the Inquisition of the capital. 
This excellent man was so perfect an archivist, 
that he burnt all the reports of proceedings, 
with the approbation of his master (as he him- 
self tells us), with the exception of those 
which could appertain to history, by the cele- 
brity or the renown of the persons who figured 





458 



NOTES. 



in them, such as those of Caranza, of Maca- 
naz, and a few others ; although he preserved 
entire, he adds, the registers of the decisions 
of the Council, the royal ordinances, and the 
bulls and briefs from Rome. (Edition Fran- 
chise, 1818, t. 4, p. 145.) After having heard 
this remarkable confession, we will ask every 
impartial man, whether there is not room for 
greatly mistrusting an historian who claims to 
be sole and unique, because he has had the op- 
portunity of consulting the original documents 
whereon he founds his history, and who, never- 
theless, burns and destroys these same docu- 
ments ? Was there no place to be found in 
Madrid to place them, where they could be ex- 
amined by those who, after Llorente, might 
wish to write the history of the Inquisition 
from the original documents ? Llorente has 
preserved, he tells us, those which belonged to 
history ; but the history of the Inquisition had 
equally need of others, even the most obscure 
— even the most apparently insignificant ; for 
it not seldom happens that a fact, a circum- 
stance, a word, shows us an institution, and 
paints for us an age. And observe, that this 
destruction took place at a critical moment of 
public disturbance, when the whole nation, de- 
voted to an immortal struggle in defence of her 
independence, could not fix her attention on 
such matters. The most remarkable men, 
scattered on all sides, then led their fellow-ci- 
tizens in arms, or were engaged in the most 
important interests of the country; conse- 
quently they could not watch over the conduct 
of an archivist, who, after having left his bre- 
thren, whose blood was flowing upon the battle- 
field, accepted employment under a foreign in- 
truder, and burned the documents of an insti- 
tution whereof he undertook to write the 
history. 

Note 27, p. 281. 

The plan of my work required that questions 
relating to the religious communities should be 
examined at some length but it did not allow 
me to give to this matter all the development 
of which it is susceptible. Indeed, it would 
be possible, in my opinion, in writing the 
history of religious communities, to give side 
by side that of the nations among whom these 
communities arose, so as to show in detail a 
truth we have now proved, viz. that the esta- 
blishment of religious institutions, besides the 
superior and divine object which they have 
had in view, has been at all times the fulfil- 
ment of a social and religious necessity. Al- 
though my strength does not enable me to as- 
pire to such an enterprise, by which the cou- 
rage may well be daunted, even by contem- 
plating the immense extent of such a work, I 
wish to suggest the idea of it here ; perhaps a 
man may be found with sufficient capacity, 
learning, and leisure, to undertake it, and en- 
rich our age with this new monument of history 
and philosophy. By conceiving the plan in 
this point of view, and making it subordinate 
to this unity of object, whereof the foundation, 
which shows itself in well-known facts, is dis-' 
covered in obscure and conjectured in hidden 
ones, there would be no difficulty in giving all 
desirable variety to this work. The subject 
itself leads to variety ,• for it invites the writer 



to descend to extremely interesting particu- 
lars, which will be like the episodes of a grand 
and unique poem. The disposition of men's 
minds, now become favorable to religious in- 
stitutions, thanks to the deceptions which are 
the consequence of vain theories, and to the 
lessons of experience, which destroy the calum- 
nies invented by philosophy, render the road 
every day more easy. The path is already 
sufficiently beaten ; it is only required to en- 
large and extend it, in order to conduct a 
greater number of men towards the region of 
truth. 

Having pointed out this, it only remains for 
me to state here, in conclusion, divers facts 
which could not be given in the text, and which 
I have preferred to collect in a note. As these 
facts belonged to the same subject, it appeared 
to me proper to collect them apart, while leav- 
ing the reader to pay full attention to the ob- 
servations which form the body of my work. 

There were known among the pagans, under 
the name of ascetics, persons who devoted 
themselves to abstinence and the practice of 
the austere virtues; so that, even before Chris- 
tianity, there already existed the idea of those 
virtues which have been since exercised in 
Christianity. The lives of the philosophers 
are full of examples which prove the truth of 
my assertion. Yet it will be understood that, 
deprived of the light of faith and the aid of 
grace, the pagan philosophers afforded but a 
very faint shadow of what was afterwards rea- 
lized in the lives of the Christian ascetics. We 
have stated that the monastic life is founded 
on the Gospel, inasmuch as the Gospel contains 
asceticism. From the foundation of the Church 
we see the monastic life established under one 
form or another. Origen tells us of certain 
men, who, in order to reduce their bodies into 
subjection, abstained from eating meat and 
from all that had life. (Origen, Contr. Celsum, 
lib. v.) Tertullian makes mention of some 
Christians who abstained from marriage, not 
because they condemned it, but in order to 
gain the kingdom of heaven. (Tertul. Be 
Cult. Femin. lib. ii.) 

It is remarkable, that the weaker sex parti- 
cipated in a singular manner in that strength 
of mind which Christianity communicated for 
the exercise of the heroic virtues. In the 
early ages of the Church there were already 
reckoned, in great numbers, virgins and wid- 
ows consecrated to the Lord, bound by a vow 
of perpetual chastity ; and we see that special 
care was taken in the ancient Councils of the 
Church of that chosen portion of her flock. It 
is one of the objects of the solicitude of the 
Fathers to regulate discipline on this point in 
a proper manner. The virgins made their pub- 
lic profession in the church ; they received 
the veil from the hands of the bishop, and, for 
greater solemnity, they were distinguished by 
a kind of consecration. This ceremony re- 
quired a certain age in the person who was 
consecrated to God ; we also observe that dis- 
cipline has been very different on this point. 
In the East they received persons seventeen 
years old, and even sixteen, as we learn from 
St. Basil {Epist. can. 18) ; in Africa at twenty- 
five, as we see from the fourth canon of the 
third Council of Carthage ; in France at forty, 
as appears from the nineteenth canon of the 



NOTES. 



459 



Council of Agde. Even when the virgins and 
widows dwelt in the houses of their fathers, 
they did not cease to be reckoned among ec- 
clesiastical persons ; they received the support 
of the Church by this title, in cases of neces- 
sity. If they violated their vow of chastity, 
they were excommunicated, and could not re- 
turn to the communion of the faithful, except 
by submitting to public penance. (For these 
details, see the thirty-third canon of the third 
Council of Carthage, the nineteenth canon of 
the Council of Ancyra, and the sixteenth 
canon of that of Chalcedon.) 

In the first three centuries, the state of the 
Church, subject to an almost continual perse- 
cution, must naturally have hindered persons 
who loved the ascetic life, men or women, from 
assembling in the towns to observe it in com- 
mon. Some think that the propagation of the 
ascetic life in the desert is in great part due to 
the persecution of Decius, which was very 
cruel in Egypt, and made a great number of 
Christians retire into the deserts of the The- 
bais, or other solitudes in the neighbourhood. 
Thus commenced the establishment of that 
method of life which, in the end, was to gain 
so prodigious an extension. St. Paul, if we are 
to believe St. Jerome, was the founder of the 
solitary life. 

It appears that some abuses were introduced 
into the monastic life from the earliest ages, as 
we see certain monks detested at Rome in the 
time of Jerome. Quousque genus detestabile 
monacorum urbe non pellitur, says the saint by 
the mouth of the Romans in a letter to Paula ; 
but the reputation of the monks, which had 
perhaps been compromised by the Saraba'ites 
and the Gyrovagues, a kind of vagabonds 
whose last care was the practice of the virtues 
of their state, and who indulged in gluttony 
and other pleasures with shameful licentious- 
ness, was soon restored. St. Athanasius, St. 
Jerome himself, St. Martin, and other ce- 
lebrated men, among whom St. Bennet distin- 
guished himself in a particular manner, renewed 
the splendor of the monastic life by the most 
eloquent apology, that which consisted in giv- 
ing, as they did, the most sublime example 
of the most austere virtues. 

It is remarkable that, in spite of the multi- 
plication of monks in the east and west, they 
were not divided into different orders, so that, 
during the first six centuries, all, as Mabillon 
observes, were considered as forming one insti- 
tute. There was something noble in this unity, 
which, as it were, formed all the monasteries 
into one family ; but it must be acknowledged 
that the diversity of orders afterwards intro- 
duced was essentially calculated to attain the 
various and numerous objects which succes- 
sively attracted the attention of religious insti- 
tutions. 

The discipline, by virtue whereof no new 
order could be instituted without the previous 
approbation of the sovereign Pontiff, it may be 
said, was very necessary, considering the ar- 
dor which afterwards urged many persons to 
establish new institutions ; so that, without this 
prudent check, disorder would have been in- 
troduced in consequence of the exaggerated 
transports which urged some imaginations to 
exceed all bounds. 

Some people take delight in relating the ex- 



cesses into which some individuals of the men- 
dicant orders fell ; and they borrow the narra- 
tives of Matthew Paris, without forgetting the 
lamentations of St. Bonaventura himself. I 
wish not to excuse evil, wherever it is found ; 
but I will observe, that the circumstances of 
the times when the mendicant orders were 
established, and the kind of life they were ob- 
liged to embrace, in order to fulfill the purpose 
for which they were intended, as I have point- 
ed out in the text, rendered almost inevitable 
those evils which pious men sincerely deplored, 
and which the enemies of the Church lament 
with no less affectation than exaggeration. 

Note 28, p. 305. 

I have already shown, by numerous testimo- 
nies of scholastic theologians, how the divine 
origin of the civil power is to be understood ; 
and it is evident that it contains nothing but 
what is perfectly conformable to sound reason, 
and adapted, at the same time, to the high 
aims of society. It would have been easy for 
me to accumulate testimonies ; but I think I 
have adduced a sufficient number to throw light 
on the subject, and to satisfy every reader who, 
free from unjust prejudices, is sincerely desirous 
of listening to truth. In order, however, to 
view this subject under every aspect, I will add 
a few explanations on that celebrated passage 
of St. Paul to the Romans, chap, xiii., in which 
the Apostle speaks of the origin of powers, and 
of the submission and obedience due to them. 
Let it not be thought, however, that I purpose 
attaining this end by any reasoning more or 
less specious. Whenever a passage of Scrip- 
ture is to be expounded in its true sense, we 
should not rely principally upon what our 
wavering reason suggests to us, but rather 
upon the interpretation of the Catholic Church ; 
for this reason we should consult those writers 
whose high authority, founded on their wisdom 
and their virtue, leads us to hope that they 
have not deviated from the maxim, Quod sem- 
per, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus traditum est. 

We have already seen a remarkable passage 
of St. John Chrysostom, explaining this point 
with as much clearness as solidity ; we have 
also learned, from the testimony of the Fathers, 
what motives induced the Apostles to inculcate 
so pressingly the obligation of obedience to the 
lawful authorities. It only remains for us to 
insert here the commentaries of some illustrious 
writers on the text of the Apostle. In them 
we shall find, as it were, a code of doctrine ; 
and when we come to appreciate the reasons 
on which the precepts inculcated in the sacred 
text are founded, we shall more easily discover 
their true meaning. 

Observe, in the first place, with what wisdom, 
prudence, and piety this important subject is 
expounded by a writer who was not of the 
golden era, but, on the contrary, who lived in 
what is generally termed the barbarous age — 
St. Anselm. In his commentaries on the 13th 
chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, this doc- 
tor thus expresses himself: 

" Omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus sub- 
dita sit. Non est enim potestas nisi a Deo. 
Quae, autem sunt, a Deo ordinatce sunt. Itaque 
qui resistit potestati, Dei ordinationi resistit. 
Qui autem resistunt, ipsi sibi damnationem ae- 
quirunt. 



460 



NOTES. 



" Sicut superius reprehendit illos, qui gloria- 
bantur dc meritis, ita nunc ingreditur illos red- 
arguere, qui postquam erant ad fidem conversi 
nolebant subjici alicui potestati. Videbatur 
enim quod infideles, Dei fidelibus non deberent 
dominari, etsi fideles deberent esse pares. 
Quam superbiam removet, dicens : Omnis ani- 
ma, id est, omnis homo, sit bumiliter subdita 
potestatibus vel secularibus, vel ecclesiasticis, 
sublimioribus se : boc est, omnis bomo sit sub- 
jectus superpositis sibi potestatibus. A parte 
enim majore significat totum bominem, sicut 
rursum a parte inferiore totus bomo significa- 
tur ubi Propbeta dicit : Quia videbit omnis caro 
salutare Dei. Et recte adinonet, ne quis ex eo 
quod in libertatem vocatus est, factusque Chris- 
tianus, extollatur in superbiam, et non arbi- 
tretur in bujus vitae itinere servandum esse or- 
dinem suum, et potestatibus, quibus pro tempore 
rerum temporalium gubernatio tradita est, non 
se putet esse subdendum. Cum enim conste- 
mus ex anima et corpore, et quamdiu in hac 
vita temporali sumus, etiam rebus temporalibus 
ad subsidium ejusdem vita? utamur, oportet nos 
ex ea parte, qua3 ad hanc vitam pertinet, sub- 
ditos esse potestatibus, id est, res bumanas cum 
aliquo honore administrantibus : ex ilia vero 
parte, qua Deo credimus, et in regnum ejusvo- 
cainur, non debemus subditi esse cuiquam ho- 
mini, id ipsum in nobis evertere cupienti, quod 
Deus ad vitam aeternam donare dignatus est. 
Si quis ergo putat quoniam Christianus est, non 
sibi esse vectigal reddendum, sive tributum, 
aut non esse bonorem exbibendum debitum eis 
quae ha3c curant potestatibus, in magno errore 
versatur. Item si quis sic se putat esse sub- 
dendum, ut etiam in suam fidem babere potes- 
tatem arbitretur eum, qui temporalibus ad- 
ministrandis aliqua sublimitate prsecellit, in 
majorem errorem labitur. Sed modus iste ser- 
vandus est, quern Dominus ipse praacipit, ut 
reddamus Codsari quce sunt Cesaris, et Deo quo? 
sunt Dei. Quamvis enim ad illud regnum vo- 
cati simus, ubi nulla erit potestas bujusmodi, 
in boc tamen itinere conditionem nostram pro 
ipso rerum bumanarum ordine debemus tole- 
rare, nibil simulate facientes, et in hoc non tarn 
honiinibus, quam Deo, qui hoc jubet, obtempe- 
rantes. Itaque omnis anima sit subdita subli- 
mioribus potestatibus, id est, omnis homo sit 
subditus primum divinae potestati, deinde mun- 
danas. Nam si mundana potestas jusserit quod 
non debes facere, contemne potestatem, tinien- 
do sublimiorem potestatem. Ipsos bumanarum 
rerum gradus adverte. Si aliquid jusserit pro- 
curator, nonne faciendum est ? Tamen si con- 
tra proconsulem jubeat, non utique contemnis 
potestatem, sed eligis majore servire. Non 
bine debet minor irasci, si major praelata est. 
Rursus si aliquid proconsul jubeat, et aiiud im- 
perator, numquid dubitatur, illo contempto 
hiiio esse serviendum. Ergo si aliud impera- 
tor, et aliud Deus jubeat, quid faciemus ? Num- 
quid non Deus imperatori est praeferendus ? Ita 
ergo sublimioribus potestatibus anima subjicia- 
tur, id est, homo. Sive idcirco ponitur anima 
pro homine, qui secundum banc discernit, qui 
subdi debeat, et cui non. Vel homo, qui pro- 
motione virtutem sublimatus est, anima voca- 
tur a digniore parte. Vel, non solum corpus 
sit subditum, sed anima, id est, voluntas : hoc 
est, non solum corpore, sed et voluntate servia- 
tis. Ideo debetis subjici, quia non est potestas 



nisi a Deo. Numquam enim posset fieri nisi 
operatione solius Dei, ut tot homines uni ser- 
virent, quern considerant unius secum esse fra- 
gilitatis et naturae. Sed quia Deus subditis 
inspirat timorem et obediendi voluntatem, con- 
tigit ita. Nec valet quisquam aliquid posse, nisi 
divinitus ei datum fuerit. Potestas omnis est a 
Deo. Sed ea quoi sunt, a Deo ordinatce sunt. 
Ergo potestas est ordinata, id est, rationabili- 
ter a Deo disposita. Itaque qui resistit potes- 
tati, nolens tributa dare, honorem deferre, et 
his similia, Dei ordinationi resistit, qui hoc or- 
dinavit, ut talibus subjiciamur. Hoc enim con- 
tra illos dicitur, qui se putabant ita debere uti 
libertate Christiana, ut nulli vel honorem de- 
terrent, vel tributa redderent. Unde magnum 
poterat adversus Christianam religionem scan- 
dalum nasci a principibus seculi. De bona po- 
testate patet, quod earn perfecit Deus rationa- 
biliter. De mala quoque videri potest, dum et 
boni per earn purgantur, et mali damnantur, et 
ipsa deterius prajeipitatur. Qui potestati re- 
sistit, cum Deus earn ordinaverit, Dei ordina- 
tioni resistit. Sed hoc tarn grave peccatum est, 
quod qui rcsistunt, ipsi pro contumacia et 
perversitate sibi damnationem aeternae mortis 
acquirunt. Et ideo non debet quis resistere, 
sed subjici." 

This remarkable passage contains all — the 
origin of power, its object, its duties, and its 
limits. We must observe, that St. Anselm ex- 
pressly confirms what I have hinted in the text 
on the subject of the wrong meaning some- 
times given in the first centuries to Christian 
liberty; many imagining that this liberty car- 
ried with it the abolition of the civil powers, 
and particularly of those which were infidel. 
He also shows the scandal which this doctrine 
might cause ; thus explaining how the Apos- 
tles, without attempting to attribute to the civil 
power any extraordinary and supernatural ori- 
gin, like that of the ecclesiastical power, had 
nevertheless powerful reasons for inculcating 
that this power emanates from God, and that 
whoever resists it, resists the ordinance of God. 

Passing on to centuries nearer our own time, 
we find the same doctrines in the most eminent 
commentators. Cornelius a Lapide interprets 
the passage of St. Paul in the same way as St. 
Anselm, and explains, by the same reasons, the 
solicitude with which the Apostles recommend- 
ed obedience to the civil powers. These are 
his words : 

" Omnis anima (omnis homo) 2 iotestat ^ us 
sublimioribus, id est principibus et magistrati- 
bus, qui potestate regendi et imperandi sunt 
praediti; ponitur enim abstractum pro concre- 
te; potestatibus, hoc est potestate praxlitis, 
subdita sit, scilicet iis in rebus, in quibus potes- 
tas ilia sublimior et superior est, habetque jus 
et jurisdictionem, puta in temporalibus, sub- 
dita sit regi et potestati civili, quod propie hie 
intendit Apostolus : per potestatem enim, civi- 
lem intelligit ; in spiritualibus vero subdita sit 
Praelatis, Episcopis et Pontifici. 

"Nota. — Pro p>otestatibus sublimioribus, po- 
testatibus supereminentibus vel praicellentibm, 
ut, Noster vertit, 1 Pet. ii., sive regi quasi proz- 
cellenti, Syrus vertit, potestatib us dicjnitate prce- 
ditis : id est magistratibus secularibus, qui po- 
testate regendi praediti sunt, sive duces, sive 
gubernatores, sive consules, praetores, &c. 

'■' Seculares enim magistratus hie intelligere 



NOTES. 



461 



Apostolum patet, quia his solvuntur tributa et 
vectigalia quae hisce potestatibus solvi jubet 
ipse v. 7, ita Sanctus Basilius de Constit. Mo 
nast. e. 23. 

" Nota. — Ex Clemente Alexand. lib. iv. St 
matum, et S. Aug. in Psal. cxviii. cont. 31 
Tnitio Ecclesia*, puta tempore Christi et Pauli 
rumor erat, per Evangelium politias humanas 
regna et respublicas seculares everti ; uti j 
fit ab haereticis praetendentibus libertatem 
Evangelii : unde contrarium docent, et studiose 
inculcant Christus, cum solvit didrachma, et 
cum jussit Caesari reddi ea quae Caesaris sunt 
et Apostoli : idque ne in odium traheretur 
Christiana religio, et ne Christiani abuterentur 
libertate fidei ad omnem malitiam. 

" Ortus est hie rumor ex seeta Judae et Gali 
laeorum de qua Actor. 5, in fine, qui pro liber 
tate sua tuenda omne dominium Caesaris et vec- 
tigal, etiam morte proposita abnuebant, de quo 
Josephus, libr. xviii. Antiqu. 1. Quae secta diu 
inter Judaeos viguit ; adeoque Christus et Apos 
toli in ejus suspicionem vocati sunt, quia ori- 
gine erant Galilaei, et rerum novarum praecones 
Hos Galilaeos secuti sunt Judaei omnes, et de 
facto Romanis rebellarunt : quod dicerent po 
pulum Dei liberum non debere subjici et ser- 
vire infidelibus Romanis ; ideoque a Tito excisi 
sunt. Hinc etiam eadem calumnia in Christia 
nos, qui origine erant et habebantur Judaei, de 
rivata est : unde Apostoli, ut earn amoliantur, 
saepe docent principibus dandum esse honorem 
et tributum. 

" Quare octo argumentis probat hie Aposto 
lus principibus et magistratibus deberi obedien- 

tiam 

"His rationibus probat Apostolus Evange- 
lium, et Christianismum, regna et magistratus 
non evertere, sed firmare et stabilire : quia nil 
regna et prineipes ita confirmat, ac subditorum 
bona, Christiana et sancta vita. Adeo, ut etiam 
nunc prineipes Japones et Indi Gentiles ament 
Christianos, et suis copiam faciant baptismi et 
Christianismi suscipiendi, quia subditos Chris- 
tianos, magis quam Ethnicos, faciles et obse- 
quentes, regnaque sua per eos magis firmari, 
pacari et florere experiuntur." 

With regard to the mode in which civil power 
proceeds from God, the celebrated commenta- 
tor agrees with the other theologians. Like 
them, he distinguishes between direct and in- 
direct communication, and takes care to define 
the particular meaning of the term, divine 
origin of power, when applied to ecclesiastical 
authority. 

In his explanation of these words, all power 
is from God, he thus expresses himself: 

" Xon est enim potestas, nisi a Deo ; quasi di- 
ceret principatus et magistratus non a diabolo, 
nec a solo homine, sed a Deo ejusque divina 
ordinatione et dispositione conditi et instituti 
sunt : eis ergo obediendum est. 

"Notaprimo. — Potestas saccular is est a Deo 
mediate ; quia natura et recta ratio, quoz a Deo 
est, dicat, et hominibus persuasit praijicere 
reipublicoz magistratus, a quibus regantur. 
Potestas vero ecclesiastiea immediate est a Deo 
instituta ; quia Christus ipse Petrum et Apos- 
tolos Ecclesio& prazfecit." 

The celebrated Dom Calmet explains the 
same passage with no less learning ; he quotes 
numerous passages from the holy Fathers, 
showing what ideas the first Christians held 

2 o 



on the subject of civil power, and how calum- 
niously they have been accused of being the 
disturbers of public order. 

" Omnis anima potestatibus, &c. Pergit hie 
Apostolus docere Eideles vitae ac morum ofiicia. 
Quae superiori capite vidimus, eo desinunt, ut 
bonus ordo et pax in Ecclesia interque Eideles 
servetur. Haec potissimum spectant ad obedi- 
entiam, quam unusquisque superioribus potes- 
tatibus debet. Christianorum libertatem atque 
a Mosaicis legibus immunitatem commenda- 
verat Apostolus ; at ne quis monitis abutatur, 
docet hie, quae debeat esse subditorum sub- 
jectio erga Reges et Magistratus. 

"Hoc ipsum gravissime monuerant primos 
Ecclesiae discipulos Petrus et Jacobus : repetit- 
que Paulus ad Titum scribens, sive ut Christi- 
anos, insectantium injuriis undique obnoxios, 
in patientia contineret, sive ut vulgi opinionem 
deleret, qua discipuli Jesu Christi, omnes ferme 
Galilcei, sententiam Judw Gaulonitoz sequi, et 
principum authoritati repugnare censebantur. 

" Omnis anima, quilibet, quavis conditione 
aut dignitate, potestatibus sublimioribus subdita 
sit; Regibus, Principibus, Magistratibus, iis 
denique quibus legitima est authoritas, sive 
absoluta, sive alteri obnoxia. Neminem exci- 
pit Apostolus, non Presbyteros, non Prsesules, 
non Monachos, ait Theodoretus ; illsesa tamen 
Ecclesiasticorum immunitate. Tunc solum 
modo parere non debes, cum aliquid Divinae 
Legi contrarium imperatur : tunc enim praefer- 
enda est debita Deo obediential quin tamen 
vel arma capere adversus Prineipes, vel in se- 
ditionem abire liceat. Repugnandum est in 
iis tantum, quae justitiam, ac Dei legem vio- 
lant; in caeteris parendum. Si imperaverint 
aut idolorum cultum aut justitiae violationem 
cum necis vel bonorum jacturae intermina- 
tione, vitam et fortunas discrimini objicito, ac 
repugnato ; in reliquis autem obtempera. 

"Non est enim potestas nisi a Deo. Abso- 
lutissima in libertate conditus est homo, nulli 
creatae rei, at uni Deo subditus. Nisi mun- 
dum invasisset una cum Adami transgressione 
peccatum, mutuam aequalitatem libertatemque 
homines servassent. At libertate abusos dam- 
navit Deus, ut parerent iis, quos ipse prinei- 
pes illis daret, ob pcenam arrogantiae, qua pares 
Conditori effici voluerunt. At, inquies, quis 
nesciat, quorumdam veterum Imperiorum ini- 
tia et incrementa ex injuria atque ambitione 
profecta. Nenirod, exempli causa, Ninus, Na- 
buchodonosor, aliique quamplures, an Prinei- 
pes erant a Deo constituti? Nonne similius 
vero est, violenta Imperia primum exorta esse 
ab imperandi libidine ? liberorum vero Impe- 
riorum originem fuisse hominum metum, qui. 
ese iinpares propulsandae externorum injuriae 
sentientes, aliquem sibi Principem creavere, 
datamque sibi a Deo naturalem ulciscendi in- 
jurias potestatem, volentes libentesque alteri 
tradiderunt? Quam vere igitur docet Apos- 
tolus, quamlibet potestatem a Deo esse, eum- 
que esse positae inter homines authoritatis in- 
stitutorem ?" 

He points out four ways in which power may 
be said to emanate from God, and it is re- 
markable that none of them are extraordinary 
or supernatural ; all of them serve to confirm 
more and more what reason and the very 
nature of things teach us. 

" Omnino Deus potestatis autor et causa est. 



462 



NOTES. 



E. Quod, hominibus tacite inspiraverit con- 
silium subjiciendi se uni, a quo defenderentur. 
II. Quod imperia inter homines utilissima sint 
servanda? concordiae, disciplinae, ac religioni. 
Porro quicquid boni est, a Deo ceu fonte pro- 
ficisciter. III. Cum potestas tuendiabaggres- 
sore vitam vel opes, hominibus a Deo tradita, 
atque ab ipsis in Principem conversa, a Deo 
primum proveniat, Principes ea potestate ab 
hominibus donati, hanc ab ipso Deo accepisse 
jure dicuntur; quamobrem Petrus humanam 
creaturam nuncupat, quam Paulus potestatem 
a Deo institutam : humana igitur et divinaest, 
varia ratione spectata, uti diximus. IV. De- 
nique suprema authoritas a Deo est, utpote 
quam Deus, a sapientibus institutam, probavit. 

" Nulla unquam gens ssecularibus potestati- 
bus magis paruit, quam primae aetatis Christian!, 
qui a Christo Jesu et ab Apostolis edocti, nun- 
quam ausi sunt Principibus a Providentia sibi 
datis repugnare. Discipulos fugere tantum 
jubet Christus. Ait Petrus, Christum nobis 
exempluin reliquisse, cum sese Judicum in- 
iquitate pessime agi passus est. Monet hie 
Paulus, resistere te Dei voluntati, atque aeternae 
damnationis reum effici, si potestati repugnas. 
' Quamvis nimius et copiosus noster populus, 
non tamen adversus violentiam se ulciscitur : 
patitur,' ait sanctus Cyprianus. ' Satis virium 
est ad pugnam ; at omnia perpeti ex Christo 
didicimus. Cui bello non idonei, non prompti 
fuissemus, etiam copiis impares, qui tarn liben- 
ter trucidamur ? si non apud istam disciplinam 
magis occidi liceret, quam occidere/ inquit 
Tertullianus. ' Cum nefanda patimur, ne ver- 
bo quidem reluctamur, sed Deo remittimus ul- 
tionem,' scribebat Lactantius. Sanctus Am- 
brosius : ' coactus, repugnare non novi. Dolere 
potero, potero Here, potero gemere : abversus 
arma, milites, Gothos quoque ; lacrymae meae 
arma sunt. Talia enim sunt munimenta Sa- 
cerdotis. Aliter ne debeo nec possum resis- 
tere.' " 

I have said in the text, that there was to be 
remarked a singular coincidence of opinions 
on the origin of society between the philoso- 
phers of antiquity, deprived of the light of 
faith, and those of our days who have aban- 
doned this light; both wanting the only guide, 
which is the Mosaic history, have found in 
their researches after the origin of things, 
nothing more than chaos, in the physical as 
well as in the moral order. In support of my 
assertion, I will insert passages from two cele- 
brated men, in which the reader will find, with 
very little difference, the same language as in 
Hobbes, Rousseau, and other writers of the 
same school. 

" There was a time," says Cicero, " when 
men wandered in the fields like the brutes, 
feeding on prey like wild beasts, deciding 
nothing by reason, but every thing by force. 
No religion was then professed, no morality 
observed ; there were no laws of marriage ; 
the father could not distinguish his own chil- 
dren, and the possession of property by virtue 
of principles of equity was unknown. Hence 
the blind, unrestrained passions ruled tyranni- 
cally in the midst of error and ignorance, and 
used the powers of the body for their gratifi- 
cation as their most injurious satellites." 

" Nam fuit quoddam tempus cum in agris 
homines passim bestiarum more vagabantur, 



et sibi victu ferino vitam propagabant; nec 
ratione animi quidquam, sed pleraque viribus 
corporis administrabant. Nondum divinae re- 
ligionis, non humani officii ratio colebatur ; 
nemo nuptias viderat legitimas, non certos 
quisquam inspexerat liberos ; non jus aequa- 
bile quid utilitatis haberet, acceperat. Ita 
propter errorem atque inscitiam, caeca ac tem- 
eraria dominatrix animi cupiditas ad se ex- 
plendam viribus corporis abutebatur, perni- 
ciosissimis satellitibus." {Be Inv. 1.) 

The same doctrine is to be found in Horace : 

<: Cum prorepserunt primis animalia terris, 
Mutum et turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilia propter 
Unguibus et pugnis, dein fustibus, atque ita porro 
Puguabant armis, quae post fabricaverat usus : 
Donee verba, quibus voces sensusque notarent, 
Nominaque invenere : debinc absistere bello, 
Oppida coeperunt munire et ponere leges, 
Neu quis fur esset, neu latro, neu quis adulter. 
Nam fuit ante Helenam mulier teterrima belli 
Causa: sed ignotis perierunt mortibus illi, 
Quos Venerem incertam rapientes, more ferarum, 
Viribus editior caedebat, ut in grege taurus. 
Jurainventa metu injusti fateare necesseest, 
Tempora si fastosque velis evolvere mundi, 
Nec natura potest justo secernere iniquum, 
Dividit ut bona diversis, fugienda petendis." 

Satir. lib. i. sat. 3. 

"When men first began to crawl upon the 
earth, they wcro only like a herd of brute and 
speechless animals, contending with their nails 
or their fists for a few acorns or for a den. 
They afterwards contended with sticks and 
such arms as experience taught them to invent. 
At length they discovered the use of words to 
express their thoughts ; gradually they be- 
came weary of fighting, and built cities, and 
made laws to prevent theft, robbery, and adul- 
tery ; for, before Helen, women had been the 
cause of terrible wars. He who was the 
strongest, abusing his power, after the manner 
of brutes, attacked the weak, like a bull among 
a subject herd ; they thus contended for the 
favors of inconstant Venus ; but their end was 
inglorious. If you consult the origin of things, 
you will acknowledge that laws have been 
made in apprehension of injustice. Nature 
enables us to discern good from evil, what is 
to be sought after from what is to be avoided, 
but she is incapable of distinguishing justice 
from injustice." 

Note 29, p. 311. 

Concerning this question, as to the direct or 
indirect origin of civil power, it is remarkable, 
that, in the time of Louis of Bavaria, the im- 
perial princes solemly sanctioned the opinion 
that power emanates directly from God. In 
an imperial Constitution, published against the 
Roman Pontiff, they established the following 
proposition : " In order to avoid so great an 
evil, we declare that imperial dignity and 
power proceed directly from God. — Ad tantum 
malum evitandum, declaramus, quod imperialis 
dignitas et potestas est immediate a Deo solo." 
That we may form an idea of the spirit and 
tendency of this doctrine, let us see what kind 
of man this Louis of Bavaria was. Excom- 
municated by John XXII., and at a later 
period by Clement VI., he went so far as to 
depose this latter Pontiff, in order to exalt to 
the Pontifical Chair the antipope Peter, for 



NOTES. 



463 



which reason the Pope, after repeated admo- 
nitions, divested him of his imperial dignity, 
substituting Charles IV. in his stead. 

Ziegler the Lutheran, a zealous supporter 
of direct communication, in order to explain 
his doctrine, compares the election of a prince 
to that of a minister of the Church. The lat- 
ter, says he, does not receive his spiritual 
authority from the people, but immediately 
from God. From this explanation it is evident 
,vith how much reason I have said, that such 
a doctrine tended to place the temporal and 
spiritual powers on a level, by making it ap- 
pear that the latter could not claim, by reason 
of its origin, any superiority over the former. 
I do not mean, however, to assert, that this 
declaration, made in the time of Louis of Ba- 
varia, had directly this aim, since it may rather 
be regarded as a sort of weapon employed 
against the pontifical authority, the ascendency 
of which was dreaded. But it is well known 
that doctrines, besides the influence resulting 
immediately from them, possess a peculiar 
force, which continues to develope itself as op- 
portunities occur. Some time after, we see 
the kings of England defenders of the reli- 
giors supremacy which they had just usurped, 
supporting the proposition advanced in the 
imperial Constitution. 

I know not with what foundation it can be 
said that Ziegler's opinion was general before 
the time of Puffendorf ; in consulting ecclesi- 
astical and secular writers, we do not find the 
least support for such an assertion. Let us be 
just even to our adversaries. Ziegler's opin- 
ion, defended by Boeder and others, was at- 
tacked by certain Lutherans, amongst others 
by Boehmer, who observes, that this opinion 
is not favorable, as its partisans pretend, to the 
security of states and princes. To repeat what 
I have already explained in the text, I do not 
consider that the opinion of direct communica- 
tion, rightly understood, is so inadmissible and 
dangerous as some have imagined ; but as it 
lay open to an evil interpretation, Catholic 
theologians have done well to combat its ten- 
dency to encroach upon the divine origin of 
ecclesiastical power. 

Note 30, p. 317. 

I might quote a thousand remarkable pas- 
sages showing the reader how unjust it is in 
the enemies of the clergy to accuse them of 
being favorable to despotism. But, to be brief, 
and to spare him the fatigue of perusing so 
many texts and quotations, I shall merely pre- 
sent to him a specimen of the current opinions 
on this point in Spain at the beginning of the 
17th century, a few years after the death of 
Philip. II., the monarch who is represented to 
us as the personification of religious fanati- 
cism and political tyranny. Among the numer- 
ous books published at that time on these 
delicate points, there is a very singular one, 
which does not appear to be very well known; 
its title is as follows : 

A Treatise on the State and Christian Politics, 
for the use of Kings and Princes, and those 
holding government appointments, by Brother 
John de Ste.- Marie, a religious in the pro- 
vince of St. Joseph, of the order of our glori- 
ous Father St. Francis. 



This book, printed at Madrid in 1615, fur- 
nished with all the privileges, approbations, 
and other formalities in use, must have been 
well received at that epoch, since it was re- 
printed at Barcelona in 1616, by Sebastian de 
Cormellas. Who shall say whether this work 
did not inspire Bossuet with the idea of that 
intituled Politics derived from the very words 
of Scripture ? The title is certainly analo- 
gous, and the idea is in fact the same, although 
differently carried out. " I think," says Brother 
John de Ste. -Marie, "I shall escape all diffi- 
culty, by laying before kings in this work, not 
my own reasonings, nor those afforded by emi- 
nent philosophers and the records of profane 
history, but the words of God and His saints, 
and the divine and canonical histories, whose 
teaching commands respect, and whose au- 
thority cannot be prejudicial to any one, how- 
ever powerful a sovereign he may be ; in fact, 
to these a Christian cannot but submit, since 
every thing in them is dictated by the Holy 
Ghost, the author of these divine maxims. If 
I cite examples of Gentile kings, if I appeal 
to antiquity, and adduce passages from phi- 
losophers unconnected with the people of God, 
I shall do so incidentally only, and as we re- 
sume possession of what of right belongs to 
us, and has been unjustly usurped by others." 
(Chap. 2.) 

The work is dedicated to the king. Ad- 
dressing him, and praying him to read it, and 
not to allow himself to be imposed upon by 
those who would dissuade him from its peru- 
sal, the good religious says, with a pleasing 
candor, " Let no one tell you that these things 
are metaphysical, impracticable, and all but 
impossible." 

The following inscription is placed at the 
head of the 1st chapter: "Ad vos (OReges) 
sunt hi sermones mei, ut discatis sapientiam 
et non excidatis : qui enim custodierint justa 
juste, justificabuntur : et qui didiscerint ista, 
invenient quid respondeant." (Sap. 6, v. 10.) 

In the first chapter, the title of which is, 
"A treatise in which the import and definition 
of this word commonwealth are briefly dis- 
cussed," we read these remarkable words : 
" So that monarchy must degenerate if it be 
absolute and without restraint (for power and 
authority thus become unreasonable) ; in all 
things falling under the cognizance of law, it 
should be bound by the law ; and in special 
and incidental matters it should be subject to 
advice, from the connection which it ought to 
have with the aristocracy, which is its assist- 
ant, and forms a council of learned and pow- 
erful men. "Without this wise modification, 
monarchy will create great errors of govern- 
ment, will give but little satisfaction, but, on 
the contrary, will cause great discontent among 
the governed. The wisest and most enlighten- 
ed men of every age have invariably consider- 
ed this form of government the best; and 
without such a modification no city or king- 
dom has ever been considered well governed. 
Good kings and the wisest statesmen have 
always been in favor of this system ; bad 
kings, on the contrary, elated by their power, 
have pursued the opposite course. Hence, if 
a monarch, whoever he be, decides by himself, 
without taking advice, or against the advice 
of his councillors, he passes the legitimate 



464 



NOTES. 



bounds of monarchy, and even when his de- 
cisions are fortunate, he is a tyrant. History 
is full of these examples and of their disas- 
trous consequences ; it will be enough to ad- 
duce one only, that of Tarquin the Proud, as 
related in the 1st book of Livy, a king whose 
pride was unbounded, and who, to render him- 
self absolute, and to put every thing under his 
feet, strove to weaken the authority of the 
Eoman Senate by diminishing the number of 
Senators, thus arrogating to himself an abso- 
lute right of decision in all the affairs of the 
empire." 

In chapter 2, in which the author treats of 
" the meaning of the word king," we read as 
follows: "We meet here very opportunely 
with the third meaning of the word king, 
which is the same as that of father; as Ave find 
in Genesis, when the Sichemites gave to their 
king the name of Abimelech, which means 
' Father and Lord.' Kings were formerly 
styled the fathers of their states. Whence 
King Theodoric, defining royal majesty (as 
Cassiodorus relates), makes use of these words : 
' Princess et Pastor publicus et communis. — The 
king is the public and common father of the 
state.' From the extreme resemblance be- 
tween the office of a king and that of a father, 
Plato was induced to call the king the father 
of a family ; and the philosopher Xenophon 
says: Bonus Princeps nihil dijfert a bono Pa- 
trc. The difference solely consists in one 
having few and the other a great number of 
persons under his dominion. And it is cer- 
tainly very reasonable to give kings this title 
of father ; for they ought to be the fathers of 
their subjects and of their kingdoms, watch- 
ing over their welfare and preservation with 
the love and solicitude of a Father. Royalty, 
says Homer, is nothing else than a paternal 
government, like that of a father over his 
children : ' Ipsum namque regnum imperium est 
suapte natura paternum.' The best manner of 
governing well is, for the king to be possessed 
with the love of a father, and to regard his sub- 
jects as his own children. The love of a father 
for his children, his solicitude that they should 
ivant for nothing, his dcvotedness to each of them, 
all this bears the greatest resemblance to the love 
of a king for his subjects. He is called father, 
and this name lays him under the obligation of 
acting in accordance ivith the meaning it conveys. 
This name, so well adapted to kings, and which, 
when well considered, is the greatest of all 
titles and epithets of majesty and power, since 
it embraces all, the genus and the species, the 
father being alone the lord, the master, or the 
chief ; this name, I say, is above all human 
names for expressing authority and solicitude. 
Antiquity, with a view to confer upon an em- 
peror an extraordinary degree of honor, called 
him the Father of the State, which was greater 
than Caesar, Augustus, or any other glorious 
name ; it decreed him this title, either to flat- 
ter him, or to lay him under the weighty obli- 
gations required by the name of father. In 
fine, to give kings this name is to remind them 
of their duty, viz. to direct, govern, and main- 
tain their states and kingdoms in justice ; like 
good pastors, to feed their rational sheep; like 
physicians, to care for them and heal them ; 
to take care of their subjects, as a father does 
of his children, with prudence, love, and soli- 



citude ; for the king is for them, rather than for 
; himself. ' Kings are under greater obligations 
! to their kingdoms and states than to them- 
| selves in fact, if we consider the institution 
I of kings and monarchs, we shall find that the 
I king was appointed for the good of the king- 
| dom, and not the kingdom for the good of the 
i king." 

In his 3d chapter, of which the following is 
the title, " Whether the name of king neces- 
sarily implies an office," he thus expresses him- 
self: — "Besides what we have advanced, it 
may be proved that the name of a king is the 
name of an office, by the common maxim, ' the 
benefice is the reward of the office.' Since, 
therefore, kings receive such great benefices, 
not only from the considerable tributes they re- 
ceive from the State, but also from the advan- 
tage they derive from benefices and ecclesias- 
tical rents, they certainly do hold an office, and 
that the greatest of all, for which reason the 
entire kingdom so bountifully assists them. 
, This is what St. Paul says in his Epistle to the 
j Romans: Jdeo et tributa prcestatis, &c. King- 
doms do not contribute for nothing ; all those 
states, taxes, and great revenues, that name, 
that high authority and eminent dignity, are 
not given gratuitously. They would have their 
title of king for nothing if they had no sub- 
jects to rule and govern, and if they were freed 
from this obligation : In multitudine popidi 
dignitas regis. This great dignity, wealth, 
rank, majesty, and honor, are possessed by 
them with the perpetual obligation of ruling 
and governing their states, so as to preserve 
them in peace and justice. Let kings bear in 
mind, therefore, that they are only invested with 
this title to serve their kingdoms j and the lat- 
ter, that Icings ought to be paid. They hold an 
office requiring them to labor : Qui praiest in 
sollicitudine, says St. Paul. Such is the title 
and the name of king, and of him who rules: 
one who is the first not only as regards honors 
and enjoyments, but also as regards cares and 
solicitude. Let them not imagine that they are 
kings merely in name and representation, and 
appointed only to make themselves honored; 
merely to exhibit their royal person and sove- 
reign dignity in a pompous manner, like some 
of the kings of the Persians and Medes, who 
were mere shadows of kings, forgetful of their 
office, as though they had never received it. 
Nothing is more destitute of life and substance 
than the shadowy image which stirs its arm or 
its head only when some one acts upon it. God 
forbade the Israelites to have statues or paint- 
ed images, representing a hand where there 
was none, and a face that did not exist, exhi- 
biting to the eye an imaginary body, and feign- 
ing by apparently living actions to see and to 
speak : for God loves not feigned images, paint- 
ed men, or sculptured kings, like those spoken 
of by David : (Js habent et non loquentur, ocu- 
los habent et non videbunt. What does it avail 
to have a tongue that speaks not, eyes that see 
not, ears that hear not, or hands which do not 
work ? Is it any thing more than an idol of 
stone, bearing only the external representation 
of a king ? To bear the supreme name and all 
authority, and not to be capable of any thing, 
sounds badly. The names which God has 
given to things are like the title of a book, 
which, in a few words, contains every thing 



NOTES. 



465 



that is included in the book. This name of 
king was given to kings by God himself, and 
contains every thing to which they are obliged 
by virtue of their office. If their actions are 
not in accordance with the name, it is as if the 
mouth should affirm what the head denies, like 
a buffoon, whom no one believes in earnest. 
Every one would regard as a mockery and a 
delusion a signboard bearing the inscription, 
' Pure gold sold here/ if, in reality, nothing but 
tinsel was sold. The name of king should not 
be an empty thing, a mere superfluity in the 
royal person — it should be what it implies and 
gives itself out for. Your name indicates that 
you rule and govern; rule and govern, there- 
fore, in reality. Do not be mere pasteboard 
kings, to use a common expression, that is, 
kings in name only. In France, there was a 
time when kings had nothing but the name, 
and the government was entirely in the hands 
of their generals, whilst they, like animals, 
were occupied only with gluttony and luxuri- 
ous living. That it might be known they were 
living, for they never went out, they used to 
appear in public once a year, on the 1st of 
May. in the squares of Paris, seated on a 
throne, as kings in a dramatic representation, 
and there they were saluted, gifts were pre- 
sented to them, and they, on their part, grant- 
ed certain favors to whomsoever they thought 
proper. In order to show to what a degree of 
degradation they had fallen, Eginard tells us, 
in the beginning of his Life of Charlemagne, 
that they were devoid of courage and incapa- 
ble of great actions ; they 'merely held the 
empty name of king ; for, in reality they were 
not kings, neither had they any participation 
in the government or riches of the kingdom ; 
every thing was entrusted to the mayors of the 
palace, styled majors-domo of the royal house- 
hold ; and the latter usurped every thing to 
such a degree, that they left the wretched king 
nothing but his title. Seated on his throne, 
with his long hair and beard, the monarch 
played his part, pretending to give audiences 
to ambassadors arriving from all parts, and to 
furnish them with answers to convey to their 
masters; whilst in reality they merely answer- 
ed according to the instructions they had re- 
ceived, either by word or writing, although 
they appeared to answer on their own respon- 
sibility. So that royal power for such a king 
was reduced to the mere name, to this throne 
and this ridiculous majesty; the real kings and 
masters were those favorites by whom the mo- 
narch was oppressed. God said of one of the 
kings of Samaria, that he was merely to be 
compared to a little vapor, which, seen from 
afar, appeared something, but when touched 
was no longer any thing. Simia in tecto rex 
fatuus in solio suo. (St. Bernard, de Consider 
ad Eu(j. cap. 7.) A monkey on a housetop, 
which, presenting the appearance of a man, is 
taken for such by those who know not what it 
is ; such is a useless king upon a throne. Mon- 
keys also serve to amuse children, and the king 
is a laughing-stock to him who looks upon him 
apart from any royal act, invested with autho- 
rity, and making no use of it. A king dressed, 
in purple, seated on a throne with great ma- 
jesty, suited to his grandeur, grave, severe, and 
terrible in appearance, but in reality an abso- 
lute nonentity. Like a painting de la main du 
59 



Greco, which-, placed in an elevated position, 
and seen from a distance, looks very beautiful, 
and produces a great effect, but when nearly 
approached is but a rough sketch. All pomp 
and majesty, properly considered, are a mero 
sketch and shadow of a king. Simulacra gen- 
tium, says David, speaking of kings who have 
nothing but the name; and according to the 
Hebrew text : Imago fctilis et contrita. A 
figure of pounded earth, crumbling on all sides ; 
an empty phantom, great in appearance, but a 
mere piece of deception. The name which 
Elifaz unjustly applied to Job is perfectly ap- 
plicable here, when he designated this good 
and just king, a man void of foundation and 
substance, bearing only external appearances ; 
he styled him Myrmicoleon, that is, the name 
of the animal which, in Latin, is called For- 
mica-leo, because it is a monstrous conforma- 
tion, one half of its body, in fact, representing 
a fearful lion, an animal always used as an 
emblem of a king, and the other half an ant, 
that is, a most feeble and insignificant thing. 
Such are the authority, the name, throne, and 
majesty of a fierce lion and of a powerful mo- 
narch ; but as regards the essence, you will find 
only that of an ant. There have been kings 
whose very name filled the world with terror; 
but these kings were void of substance in them- 
selves, in their kingdoms they were as mere ants; 
their names and offices were very great, but with- 
out effect. Let the king, therefore, bear in mind 
that he has an office to fulfill, and not only an 
office, but that he is obliged to speak and la- 
bor on all offices, of which he is the general 
superintendent. St. Augustine and St. Tho- 
mas, explaining that passage of St. Paul which 
treats of episcopal dignity, say, that the word 
bishop, in Greek, is composed of two roots 
signifying the same thing as superintendent. 
The name of bishop, king, and every other su- 
perior, are names signifying superintendence 
over, and co-operation with, every office. This 
is what is expressed by the sceptre used by 
kings in public acts, a ceremony used by the 
Egyptians, who borrowed it from the Israelites. 
The latter, in order to point out the duty of a 
good king, painted an open eye placed in an 
elevated position on the point of a rod in the 
form of a sceptre, representing, on the one 
hand, the great power of the king, the solici- 
tude and vigilance which he ought to exer- 
cise; on the other, that he ought not to be sa- 
tisfied with holding the supreme power, with 
occupying the most exalted and most eminent 
position, and, in possession of these, passing 
his life in sleep and repose ; on the contrary, 
he should be the first in commanding and 
counselling, he should appear in every office, 
incessantly watching and inspecting, like a 
man doing the business in which he is 
engaged. Jeremiah also understands it in 
this sense, for when God asked him what he 
saw, he answered : Virgam vigilantem ego vi- 
deo. Thou hast seen well ; and verily I tell 
thee, that I who am supreme, will watch over 
my flock; I who am a shepherd, will watch 
over my sheep ; I who am a king and a mo- 
narch, will watch without ceasing over all my 
inferiors. Begem festinantem, says the Chal- 
dean, a king who is in haste ; for, although he 
has eyes and sees, if he remains in repose, in 
his pleasures and amusements, if he does not 



466 



NOTES. 



go about from place to place, if he does not act 
so as to become acquainted with all the good 
and evil that is going on in his kingdom, he is 
as though he did not exist. Let him consider 
that he is the head, and even the head of the 
lion, which even in its sleep keeps its eyes 
open; that he is the rod with eyes, that he is 
the torch ; let him open his eyes, therefore, and 
sleep no longer, trusting to those who are blind- 
ed, and see no better than moles ; who, if they 
have eyes, only employ them to see their own 
interest, and to distinguish at a greater dis- 
tance what may conduce to their own profit 
and aggrandizement. Such persons have eyes 
for themselves, and it would be better if they 
had them not, for their eyes are those of birds 
of prey — of vultures." 

In his fourth chapter, the title of which is, 
" On the office of kings," the author thus ex- 
plains the origin of royal power and its obli- 
gations : — " From this it follows," says he, 
" that the institution of the state of royalty, 
or king, represented by the head, was not 
merely for the use and profit of the king him- 
self, but for that of his whole kingdom. Hence 
he ought to see, hear, feel, and understand, 
not only by himself and for himself, but by 
all and for all. He ought not merely to fix his 
regards upon his own greatness, but on the 
good of his subjects, since it is for them, and 
not for himself, that he was born a king. Ad- \ 
verte, said Seneca to the Emperor Nero, rem- j 
publicam non esse tuam, eed te reipublicce. — 
When men first issued from solitude, and 
united to live in common, they knew that i 
every one would naturally labor for himself 
or his own family, and that no one would take 
an interest in all ; they agreed to select a man j 
of great merit, that all might have recourse 
to him ; a man who, distinguished above all 
the rest by his virtue, his prudence, and cour- ' 
age, should be the chief over all, should govern 
all, watch over all, and should exert himself 
for the advantage of all — for the common 
weal — like a father for his children, or a shep- 
herd for his sheep. Now, considering that 
this man, abandoning his own affairs to look 
after those of others, could not maintain him- 
self and his family (every one was then main- 
tained by the labor of his hands), it was agreed 
that all should contribute to his support, in 
order that he might not be distracted by any 
other occupations than those of the common 
weal and the public government. Such was 
the end for which kings were instituted — such 
was their beginning. The good king ought to be 
more solicitous for the public than for his own 
private interest. He possesses his grandeur at 
the expense of great solicitude; the anxiety, 
the disquietude of mind and body, which is 
fatigue for him, is repose, support, and protec- 
tion for others. Thus smiling flowers and 
fruits, whilst they adorn the tree, exist not so 
much for the tree, nor on account of the tree, 
as for the sake of others. Do not imagine that 
all happiness is in the beauty and grace of 
the flower, and in those who are the flowers 
of the world : powerful kings and princes may 
be termed the flowers of the world, but flowers 
who consume their lives, who are full of solici- 
tude, and whose fruit will rather contribute 
to the enjoyment of others than to their own. 
' For/ says the Jew Philo, ' the king is to the 



kingdom what the wise is to the ignorant man, 
what the shepherd is to his sheep, the father 
to his children, light to darkness, and what 
God is upon earth to all his creatures.' The 
investiture he gave to Moses, when he ap- 
pointed him the chief and king over his 
people, was to tell him that he ought to be as 
God, the common father of all ; for the office 
and dignity of a king require all this. Omnium 
domoa illiua viyila defendit, omnium otium illius 
induatria, omnium vacationem illiua occupatio. 
(Seneca, Lib. de Conaol.) This is what the 
prophet Samuel says to Saul, recently elected 
king, when he expounds to him the obligations 
of his office : ' Consider, Saul, that God has 
this day constituted thee king over all this 
kingdom ; thou art bound by the office to 
govern the whole of it. Thou hast not been 
made a king to enjoy repose, u> become proud, 
and to glory in the dignity of a king ; but to 
govern thy kingdom, to maintain it in peace 
and justice, to defend and protect it against 
its enemies.' Bex cligitur, non, ut 8ui ipaius 
curctm habeat, says Socrates, et aese molliter 
curct, aed tit per ipaum ii, qui elegcrunt, bene 
beateque vivant. They were not created and 
introduced into the world for their own con- 
venience and pleasure or to be fed upon every 
dainty morsel of food (if such were the case, 
no one would willingly submit to them) ; but 
they were appointed for the advantage and 
common good of all their subjects, to govern 
them, protect them, enrich them, preserve and 
serve them. All this is perfectly admissible ; 
for although the sceptre and crown appear to 
be the emblems of domination, the office of a 
king is, strictly speaking, that of a 3lave. 
Servus communis, sioe servus honoratua, are 
words which have sometimes been applied to 
a king, quia a tota republica atipendia aecipit 
ut aevviat omnibus. And the Supreme Pontiff 
glories in this title, Servua aervorum Dei. In 
ancient times this name of slave was one of 
infamy ; but since Christ bore it it has become 
a name full of honor. Now, since it is neither 
repugnant nor derogatory to the essence nor 
nature of the Son of God, neither can it be 
derogatory to the nature and grandeur of the 
king. 

" Antigonus, king of Macedon, was perfectly 
aware of this, and said candidly to his son, 
when he rebuked him for the severity with 
which he governed his subjects : An ignoraa, 
fill mi, regnum nostrum nobilem eaae servitutem f 
Before his time Agamemnon expressed him- 
self in the same manner : ' We live apparently 
in the midst of grandeur and exaltation; but 
in reality we are the servants and slaves of 
our subjects.' Such is the office of good kings 
— an honorable servitude. From the moment 
of their being created kings, their actions no 
longer depend upon their own will, but on the 
laws and rules which have been given them, 
and on the conditions upon which they have 
undertaken their office. And although they 
may fail to comply with these conditions 
(which are the effects of a human convention), 
they may not fail to comply with that dictated 
by natural and divine law, the mistress of 
kings as well as of subjects. Now, these rules 
are almost all included in the words of Jere- 
miah, which God, according to St. Jerome, 
addresses to kings on giving them the com- 



NOTES. 



467 



mand : — Facite judicium et jmtitiam, liberate 
vi oppression de manu calumniatoris, et advenam, 
et pupilhtm, et viduam nolite contristare, neque 
opprimatis inique, et sanguinem innocentum non 
effundatis. Such is the summary of the obli- 
gations of a king ; such the laws of his insti- 
tution, which lay him under the obligation of 
maintaining in peace and justice the orphan, 
the widow, the poor, the rich and the powerful 
man, and him who can do nothing for himself. 
Upon him rest the wrongs of his ministers 
towards some, the injustice suffered by others, 
the sorrows of the afflicted, the tears of those 
who weep, not to mention many other bur- 
dens — a flood of cares and obligations — im- 
posed upon every prince or chief of a state. 
For if he is the head to command and govern, 
and to bear the burdens of others, he should 
also be the feet upon which the whole weight 
of the state is sustained. Kings and mon- 
archs, says the holy man Job, as we have seen, 
bear and carry the world upon their shoulders, 
on account of their office. Hence the figure 
we meet with in the Book of Wisdom : In veste 
poderis, quam habebat summits sacerdos, totus 
erat orbis terrarum. From the moment a man 
is created king, let him consider himself load- 
ed with a burden so heavy that a strong car- 
riage would not support it. Moses felt this 
strongly; for God having made him His 
viceroy, His captain-general, His lieutenant 
in the government, instead of returning thanks 
for so distinguished a favor, he complains that 
so heavy a burden should be placed upon him. 
Cur ajplixisti servum tuum t Cur imposuisti 
pondus universi populi hujus super me ? Again, 
continuing his complaint, he says, Numquid 
e/jo concept omnem hanc multitudinem t Ant 
genui earn, ut dicas mihi : Porta eost — 'Lord, 
have I conceived all this multitude, or begot- 
ten them, and thou shouldst say to me, Carry 
them on thy shoulders V Now, it is remark- 
able that God said nothing of that to Moses ; 
he merely tells him to rule and govern them, 
to fulfill towards them the office of captain and 
chief. Nevertheless, what says Moses ? That 
God commanded him to bear them on his 
shoulders — Porta eos. It appears, then, that 
he has no reason to complain, since he is merely 
told to be the captain, to direct, rule, and 
govern. It is a common expression, 'A word 
to the wise is sufficient.' He who knows and 
understands what it is to govern and to be the 
chief, knows also that government and obliga- 
tion are the same thing. The very words 
regere and portare are synonymous, and have 
the same meaning : there is no government 
nor employment without obligation and labor. 
In the distribution of the offices which Jacob 
made among his children, he appointed Reu- 
ben to be the first in his inheritance and the 
highest in command — prior in donis, major in 
imperio. And St. Jerome translates major ad 
portandum, for command and obligation are 
the same thing ; and the obligation and the 
labor are so much more considerable as the 
command is more exalted. St. Gregory, in his 
Morales, says, that the power, domination, and 
rule of kings over the whole world should not 
be looked upon as an honor but as a labor. 
Potestas accepta non honor, sed onus aistimatur . 
And this truth was ever received by the blind- 
est among the Gentiles. One of them, taking 



the same view of the subject, says, speaking 
of another Pagan, that his god Apollo had 
made him all glorious and happy by the gift 
of a certain office : Loztus erat, mixtoque oneri 
gaudebat honore. So that power and command 
is composed of a little honor and weighty ob- 
ligations. The Latin word for honor only 
differs from that for burden by one letter — onos 
and onus. Besides, there always were and 
always will be persons willing to undertake 
the responsibility for the sake of the honor, 
although every one avoids as much as possible 
any thing that lays him under an obligation, 
and seeks after what is glorious ; a dangerous 
choice, for the latter is not always the most 
secure." 

If such language is taxed with flattery, it 
would be difficult to comprehend what is meant 
by telling the truth. And observe, that the above 
truths are not told without reflection ; the good 
religious takes such pains to inculcate them, 
that were it not for the childlike candor of 
his language, which discloses the purest of in- 
tentions, we might accuse him of irreverence. 
This passage is long, but exceedingly interest- 
ing, for it faithfully reflects the spirit of the 
age. Innumerable other texts might be ad- 
duced to prove how unjustly the Catholic clergy 
are accused of being favorable to despotism. 
I cannot conclude without inserting here two 
excellent passages from the learned Father 
Fr. Ferdinand de Zeballos, a religious of the 
order of St. Jerome in the Monastery of St. 
Isidore del Campo, and known by a work inti- 
tuled, "False Philosophy, or Atheism, Deism, 
Materialism, and other new sects convicted of 
State Crimes against their Sovereigns and 
Rulers, against the Magistrates and Lawful 
Authorities." Madrid, 1776. Observe with 
what tact the learned writer appreciates the 
influence of religion upon society. (Book ii. 
dissertation 12, art. 2.) 

"A mild and moderate government is most 
agreeable to the spirit of the gospel. 

" One excellent and estimable point in our 
holy religion is, that she offers to human poli- 
cy, in her important truths, assistance in pre- 
serving good order among men with less trou- 
ble. ' The Christian religion,' says Montes- 
quieu, with much truth, ' is far removed from 
pure despotism. Mildness being so strongly 
recommended in the gospel, it is opposed to 
the despotic fury with which princes might 
administer justice and practise cruelties.' This 
opposition on the part of Christianity to the 
cruelty of the monarch should not be active, 
but passive and full of mildness, which Chris- 
tianity can never lose sight of without losing 
its character. This is the difference between 
Catholic Christians and the Calvinists and 
other Protestants. Basnages and Jurieu, in 
the name of all their reformation, wrote that 
it is allowable for the people to wage war 
against their princes whenever they are op- 
pressed by them, or their conduct appears 
tyrannical. 

"The Catholic Church has never changed 
the doctrines she received from Jesus Christ 
and His Apostles. She loves moderation, she 
rejoices in good : but she does not resist evil, 



468 



NOTES. 



she overcomes it by patience. Governments 
established under the direction of false reli- 
gions cannot be satisfied with a moderate po- 
licy. With them the despotism or tyranny of 
princes, the ferocity of penalties, the rigor of 
an inflexible and cruel legislation, are so many 
necessary evils. But why has it been given to 
the Catholic religion only to purge human 
governments from such inhumanity ? First, 
on account of the forcible impression produced 
by her dogmas ; secondly, through the effect 
of the grace of Jesus Christ, which renders 
men docile in doing good, and energetic in 
combating evil. Wherever false religion pre- 
dominates, and where, in consequence, these 
two means of aid are wanting, the government 
is under the necessity of supplying them as far 
as possible by efforts of a severe, harsh, and 
terror-inspiring policy, in default of that virtue 
which ought to exist in religion to restrain 
citizens. 

" Hence the Catholic religion, by the influ- 
ence of her dogmas over human affairs, relieves 
governments from the necessity of being harsh. 
In Japan, where the prevailing religion has 
no dogmas, and gives no idea of heaven or hell, 
laws are made to supply this defect — laws ren- 
dered useful by the cruelty with which they 
are conceived and the punctuality with which 
they are executed. In every society in which 
deists, fatalists, and philosophers have promul- 
gated this error, that our actions are unavoid- 
able, it is impossible to prevent laws from 
becoming more terrible and sanguinary than 
any we have known among barbarian nations : 
for in such a society, men, after the manner of 
brutes, being urged by palpable motives to do 
what they are commanded and omit what they 
are forbidden, these motives, with chastise- 
ments, must be daily more formidable, in order 
to avoid losing from habit the power of making 
themselves felt. The Christian religion, which 
admirably teaches and explains the dogmas of 
rational liberty, has no need of an iron rod to 
govern mankind. The fear of the pains of 
hell, whether eternal, to punish crimes unre- 
pented of, or temporal, to wash away the 
stains of sins confessed, relieves judges from 
the necessity of augmenting punishments. On 
the other hand, the hope of gaining heaven, 
as a reward for laudable actions, words, and 
thoughts, induces men to be just, not only in 
public but also in the secrecy of the heart. 
What laws or penalties would avail govern- 
ments not possessed of this dogma of hell and of 
glory, to make their citizens men of real merit ? 
Materialists, denying the dogma of a future 
state, and deists, holding out to the wicked the 
flattering security of paradise, place govern- 
ments under the painful necessity of arming 
themselves with all the instruments of terror, 
and of always inflicting the most cruel punish- 
ments, to restrain the people from destroying 
one another. 

" Protestants have already come to this point 
by rejecting the dogma of the eternity of 
hell, or, at least, by preserving merely the fear 
of a temporary pain. The first reformers, as 
d'Alembert observes to the clergy of Gene- 
va, denied the doctrine of purgatory, and re- 
tained that of hell; but the Calvinists, and 
modern reformers, by their limitation of the 
duration of hell, leave only what may be pro- 
perly termed purgatory. Is not the dogma of 



the last judgment, when each one's secret of- 
fences, however small, shall be exposed to the 
whole world, of singular efficacy in restraining 
the thoughts and desires, and all the perversi- 
ty of the heart and of the passions ? It is evi- 
dent that this dogma so far relieves political 
governments from the painful and continual 
vigilance which it would have to exercise over 
a town in which the idea of this judgment has 
perished, together with the thoughts which it 
inspires." 

g II. 

"There are certain aberrations observable 
among philosophers, which lead us to think that 
these men were possessed of some true discern- 
ment in their lucid moments, or whilst they were 
in the Catholic religion. Hence they have said, 
' that religion was invented for a political pur- 
pose, to spare sovereigns the necessity of being 
just, of making good laws, and of governing 
well.' This folly, which stands self-condemn- 
ed when we come to speak of religion previ- 
ously formed, supposes, nevertheless, the truth 
we are speaking of. It is evident to every 
one, even to the philosophers whose extrava- 
gant assertion we have just adduced, that the 
Christian religion, by her dogmas, is service- 
able to human governments, and aids in mak- 
ing good citizens, even in this world. Yet 
they avail themselves of this very point to pizt 
forth their insane malice : but, in reality, and 
in spite of themselves, they mean to say, that 
the dogmas of religion are of such service to 
governments, and so efficacious in facilitating 
a great part of their work, that they appear to 
be formed on purpose, and according to the 
designs of a magistrate or a political govern- 
ment. We cannot say, on this account, that 
religion alone is sufficient to govern men, 
without any judicial aid, without the interven- 
tion of the laws and of penalties. In speak- 
ing of this efficacy of the dogmas inculcated 
by religion, we are not rash and presumptuous : 
we do not reject as superfluous the office of law 
and police. We are told by the Apostle, that 
for the just there would have been no need of 
laws ; but there are so many wicked, who, 
through their forgetfulness of their destiny 
and the terrible judgments of God, live under 
the exclusive rule of their passions, that it 
has been found necessary to make laws and 
institute punishments, in order to restrain 
them. Hence, the Catholic religion does not 
reject the wise vigilance of police, nor abro- 
gate its office ; she seconds it, on the contrary, 
and receives assistance from it, to the very 
great advantage of good governments ; the 
people, through its influence, are ruled better, 
and with less austerity and severity." 

i in. 

" The second reason which renders the most 
mild and moderate governments sufficient in 
Catholic States is, the assistance which the 
grace of the gospel affords for doing good and 
avoiding evil, — an assistance imparted by the 
use of the sacraments, or other means employ- 
ed by the Spirit from above. Without this, 
every law is harsh ; this unction softens every 
yoke, renders every burden light." 

In his third article, Father Zeballos repels the 
accusation of despotism with which the ene- 



NOTES. 



469 



mies of monarchy reproach it. On this occa- 
sion he points out the just limits of royal au- 
thority, and overthrows an argument which 
some persons have pretended to found on the 
Scriptures, for the exaggeration of the preroga- 
tives of the throne. He expresses himself as 
follows : 

" When the objection, that the sovereign had 
the power of seizing the property of every 
citizen, was made against monarchy, it was 
rather an argument against the nature of des- 
potism than against the form of monarchical 
government. ' What does it avail/ says The- 
seus in Euripides, 'to amass riches for our heirs, 
to bring up our daughters with care, if we are 
to be deprived of the greater portion of these 
riches by a tyrant, if our daughters are to 
serve the most unruly passions ?' You perceive, 
then clearly, that in pretending to argue against 
the office of a monarch, it is a tyrant only that 
is spoken of. True, the frequent abuse of 
power resorted to by kings has caused these 
names and forms to be confounded. Others 
have already observed that the ancients were 
scarcely acquainted with the nature of true 
monarchy ; this was very natural, since they 
never witnessed any thing but the abuse of it. 
This gives me the opportunity of making a 
remark upon the circumstance of the Hebrews 
asking to be governed by kings. ' Make us a 
king to judge us, as all nations have,' said they 
to the prophet. Samuel saw with grief this 
levity, which was about to cause a total revo- 
lution in the government appointed by God. 
Nevertheless, God commands the prophet to 
take no notice of this affront, which was prin- 
cipally offered to the Lord ; for they were 
abandoning Him, being unwilling that He 
should rule over them any longer. 'As they 
have forsaken Me, and served strange gods, so 
do they also unto thee,' and ask for kings like 
unto those of the nations. Observe what an 
intimate connection always exists between a 
change of government and a change in religion, 
especially when the change is from a true to a 
false one. 

" But what is particularly deserving of no- 
tice is, the acquiescence granted to the people's 
demand. They wish to be ruled by kings, ex- 
actly as all other nations were. The Lord 
chastises their spirit of revolt by leaving them 
to their desires. He commands Samuel to 
comply with their request, but to point out to 
them, at the same time, the rights of the king 
who was to rule over them like unto the nations, 
and said : ' This will be the right of the king 
that shall reign over you : he will take your 
sons, and will put them in his chariots, and 
will make them his horsemen, and his running 
footmen, to run before his chariots; and he 
will appoint them to be his tribunes, and his 
centurions, and to plough his fields, and to reap 
his corn, and to make him arms and chariots. 
Your daughters also will he take to make him 
ointments, and to be his cooks and bakers ; and 
he will take your fields, and your vineyards, 
and your best olive-yards, and give them to his 
servants. Moreover, he will take the tenth of 
your corn, and of the revenues of your vine- 
yards, to give to his eunuchs and servants. 
Your servants also, and hand-maids, and your 
goodliest young men, and your asses, he will 
take away, and put them to his work. Your 
flocks also he will tithe, and you shall be his 



servants ; and you shall cry out in that day 
from the face of the king whom you have 
chosen to yourselves ; and the Lord will not 
hear you in that day, because you desired unto 
youselves a king. And the people would not 
hear the voice of Samuel, and they said, Nay, 
but there shall be a king over us, and we also 
will be like all nations.' (1st Kings, chap, 
viii., from verse 11 to middle of verse 20 in- 
clusively.) 

" Some persons, being determined to extend 
the power of kings beyond its limits, draw from 
these words the formula of royal right. A 
blind pretension, and reflecting little honor on 
j legitimate monarchs such as the Catholic sove- 
reigns. Unless a person wishes knowingly 
j to deceive himself on this portion of the Scrip- 
j ture, or is blind, he may see by the context, 
and by comparing this passage with others, 
that it is not legitimate right that is here meant, 
but de facto right. I mean to say, that the 
Holy Spirit does not explain what just mo- 
narchs ought to do ; but what had been done, 
and was still done, by the kings of Pagan na- 
tions, mere tyrants, and commonly so called. 
Observe, that the people demanded nothing 
but to be placed on an equality with the Pa- 
gan nations in a political point of view. They 
had not the prudence to demand a king such 
as he ought to be, but such as was common in 
those days ; and this was what God granted 
them. If God, as the prophet observes, has 
sometimes given the people kings in His wrath, 
what people were more deserving of this than 
those who had abandoned God himself, and 
refused to be ruled by Him? Indeed, God did 
chastise His people severely by granting them 
their foolish demand. He did give them a king, 
but a king who was to exercise what, according 
to the perverse custom of the times, formed the 
royal right described in the sacred text just 
quoted. 

" What man in our days, conversant with 
what has been written upon the different na- 
tures of governments, upon their abuse, and 
without even understanding what is said in the 
Scriptures, could imagine that the text of 
Samuel contains the legitimate form of royalty 
or of monarchy ? Does this power impart the 
right of seizing the property of the subjects, 
their lands, their riches, their sons and daugh- 
ters, and even their natural liberty ? Is this 
the model of a monarchy, or of the most ty- 
rannical despotism ? To dispel every illusion 
on this point, we need only compare with what 
we have just read the 21st chap, of the third 
Book of Kings, in which the history of Na- 
both, an inhabitant of Jezrael, is narrated. 
Achab, the king of Israel, wished to enlarge 
the palace, or pleasure-house wiiich he pos- 
sessed in that town. A vineyard of Naboth's, 
near the palace, came within the plan of the 
gardens that were to be added. The king did 
not seize it at once, of his own authority, but 
asked the proprietor to let him have it on the 
honest condition of paying him the price at 
which he should value it, or giving him a better 
in another place. Naboth would not consent 
to this, because it was the inheritance of his 
ancestors. The king, not being accustomed 
to meet with a refusal, threw himself upon his 
couch oppressed with grief; the queen, Jezabel, 
came, and told him to calm his agitation : ' Thy 
authority is great indeed,' said she to hiin; 
P 



470 



NOTES. 



Grandis auihoritatis es : she promises to put 
liira in possession of the vineyard. This 
abominable woman wrote to the judges of 
Jezrael to commence an action against Naboth 
for a calumny, to be proved against him by 
two suborned witnesses; and she demanded 
that he should be condemned to death. The 
queen was obeyed; Naboth was stoned to 
death. All this was necessary that the vine- 
yard might enter into the royal treasury, and 
that, watered by the blood of the proprietor, 
it might produce flowers for the palace of these 
princes. But, in reality, it produced none, 
neither for the king nor for the queen ; it fur- 
nished them with nothing but briars and mortal 
poisons. Elias presents himself before Achab 
when he was going to take possession of Na- 
both's vineyard; he announces to him that he, 
and all his house, even to the dog that ap- 
proacheth the wall, shall be erased from the 
face of the earth. 

"You look upon royal right as explained to 
the people by Samuel as legitimate ; tell me, 
then why Achab and Jezabel are so severely 
punished for taking the vineyard and the life 
of Naboth, since the king had a right to take 
from his subjects their most valuable vineyards 
and olive trees, according to the declaration of 
the prophet. If Achab possesses this right 
after he is established the king of the people 
of God, whence comes it that he, so violent a 
prince, should entreat Xaboth with so much 
civility ? And why is it necessary to accuse 
Naboth of some calumny ? His resistance to 
the king's right, by refusing to accept the just 
value of what was suitable to the enlargement 
of the palace and gardens, would have been 
a sufficient motive for instituting an action 
against him. We find, however, that Naboth 
committed no injustice against the king by 
refusing to sell his patrimony, not even in the 
estimation of the queen, who boasted of her 
husband's great authority. This great author- ! 
ity, which Jezabel admitted in the king, was 
neither more nor less than the royal right j 
spoken of by Samuel to the people ; it was, as 
I have said, a de facto right to take and seize 
upon every thing by mere force, as Montes- 
quieu says of the tyrant. 

"Do not therefore, mention this passage, nor 
any other of the Scriptures, to justify the idea 
of a government so ill-conceived. The doctrine 
of the Catholic religion is attached to legitimate 
monarchy, icith its suitable characteristics, and 
in accordance with the qualities which modern 
publicists recognise, viz. as a paternal and sove- 
reign power, but conformable to the fundamental 
laws of the state. Within limits so suitable, 
nothing can be more regular than this power, 
the most extensive of all temporal powers, and 
that which is most favored and supported by the 
Catholic Church." 

Such is the horrible despotism taught by 
these men so basely calumniated! Happy the 
people who are ruled by a prince whose go- 
vernment is regulated by these doctrines ! 

Note 31, p. 330. 

The importance of the matter treated of in 
this part of my work obliges me to insert here, 
at some length, passages proving the truth of 
what I have advanced. I did not think it 



advisable to give a translation of the Latin 
passages, that I might avoid augmenting ex- 
cessively the number of pages ; besides, among 
the persons who may wish to make themselves 
thoroughly acquainted with the subject, and 
who will consequently take an interest in con- 
sulting the original texts, there are few ignor- 
ant of the Latin language. 

Observe how St. Thomas expresses himself 
on royal power, and with what solid and gen- 
erous doctrine he points out its duties in the 
third book, chap. 11, of his treatise De Regi- 
mine Principum. 

DIVUS THOXAS. 
"2>e Regimine Principum, liber iii. caput XL 

"Hie Sanctus Doctor declarat de dominio 
regali, in quo consistit, et in quo differt a po- 
litico, et quo modo distinguitur diversimodo 
secundum diversas rationes. 

"Nunc autem ad regale dominium est pro- 
cedendum. ubi est distinguendum de ipso se- 
cundum diversas regiones, et prout a diversis 
varie invenitur traditum. Et primo quidem, 
in Sacra Scriptura aliter leges regalis dominii 
traduntur in Deuteronomio per Moysen, aliter 
in 1 Regum per Samuelem prophetam, uterque 
tamen in persona Dei differenter ordinat regem 
ad utilitatem subditorum, quod est proprium 
regum, ut Philosophus tradit in S ethic. Cum, 
inquit, constitutus fuerit rex. non multiplicabit 
sibi equos, nec reducet populum in iEgyptum, 
equitatus numero sublevatus, non habebit ux- 
ores plurimas, quae alliciant animam ejus, 
neque argenti, aut auri immensa pondera : 
quod quidem qualiter habet intelligi. supra 
traditur in hoc lib. describetque sibi Deuter- 
onomium legis hujus, et habebit secum, leget- 
que illud omnibus diebus vitae suae, ut discat 
timere dominum Deum suum, et custodire 
verba ejus et cseremonias, et ut videlicet possit 
populum dirigere secundum legem divinam, 
unde et rex Salomon in principio sui regiminis 
hanc sapientiam a Deo petivit, ad directionem 
sui regiminis pro utilitate subditorum, sicut 
scribitur in 3 lib. Regum. Subdit vero dictus 
Moyses in eodem lib. Nec elevetur cor ejus in 
superfluum super fratres suos, neque declinet 
in partem dexteram, vel sinistram, ut longo 
tempore regat ipse et filius ejus super Israel. 
Sed in primo Regum, traduntur leges regni, 
magis ad utilitatem Regis, ut supra patuit in 
lib. 2 hujus operis, ubi ponuntur verba omnino 
pertinentia ad conditionem servilem, et tamen 
Samuel leges quas tradit cum sint penitus de- 
spotiege dicit esse regales. Philosophus autem 
in 8 ethic, magis concordat cum primis legibus. 
Tria enim ponit de rege in eo. 4, videlicet, 
quod ille legitimus est rex qui principaliter 
bonum subditorum intendit. Item, ille rex est, 
qui curam subditorum habet, ut bene operentur 
quemadmodum pastor ovium. Ex quibus om- 
nibus manifestum est, quod juxta istum, mo- 
dum despoticum multum differat a regali, ut 
idem Philosophus videtur dicere in 1 politic. 
Item, quod regnum non est propter regem, sed 
rex propter regnum, quia ad hoc Deus providit 
de eis, ut regnum regant et gubernent, et unum- 
quemque in suo jure conservent : et hie est finis 
regiminis, quod si ad aliud faciunt in seipsot 
commodum retorquendo, non sunt rege* sed ty- 
ranni. Contra quos dicit Dominue in Ezech. 



NOTES. 



471 



Vse pastoribus Israel, qui pascunt semetipsos. 
Noane greges pascuntur a pastoribus? Lac 
coniedebatis, et lanis operiebamini, et quod 
crassurn erat occidebatis : gregera autem meum 
non pascebatis : quod infirmum fuit, non con- 
solidastis, et quod aegrotum non sanastis, quod 
contractual non alligastis, quod abjectum non 
reduxistis, et quod perierat non quaesistis ; 
sed cum austeritate inaperabatis eis et cum po- 
tentia. In quibus verbis nobis sufficienter 
forma regiminis traditur redarguendo contra- 
rium. Amplius autem regnum ex hominibus 
constituitur, sicut domus ex parietibus, et 
corpus humanum ex meinbris,ut Philos. dicit in 
3 politic. Finis ergo regis est, ut regimen pros- 
peretitr, quod homines conserventur per regem. 
Et hinc habet commune bonum cujuslibet 
principatus participationem divinae bonitatis : 
unde bonum commune dicitur a Philosopho in 
1 ethic, esse quod omnia appetunt, et esse 
bonum divinum, ut sicut Deus qui est rex re- 
gum, ct dominus dominantium, cujus virtute 
principes imperant, ut j)robatum est supra, nos 
regit et gubernat non propter seipsum, sed prop- 
ter nostram salutcm : ita et reges faciant et alii 
dominatores in orbe." 

Note 32, p. 336. 

I have noticed the opinion of D. Felix Amat, 
Archbishop of Palmyra, with respect to the 
obedience due to de facto governments. I have 
remarked, that tbis writer's principles, besides 
being false, are opposed to the rights of the 
people. The Archbishop of Palmyra appears 
to have been at a loss to discover a maxim to 
which it is possible to conform under all cir- 
cumstances that may occur, and which do oc- 
cur but too often. He dreaded the obscurity 
and confusion of ideas when the legitimacy of 
a given case was to be defined ; he wished to 
remedy an evil, but he appears to have aggra- 
vated it to an extraordinary degree. Observe 
how he sets forth his opinion in his work en- 
titled Idea of the Church Militant, chap. iii. 
art. 2 : 

" The more I reflect," says he, " on the diffi- 
culties I have just pointed out, the more I am 
convinced that it is impossible to resolve them, 
even those which are ancient, with any degree 
of certainty ; and it is equally impossible to 
derive any light from them to aid us in resolv- 
ing those which are formed at the present day 
by the struggle between the prevailing spirit 
of insubordination in opposition to the judg- 
ment and will of the governor, and the con- 
trary effort made to limit more and more the 
liberty of those who obey. Starting from the 
divers points and notions that I have laid down 
relative to the supreme power in all really civil 
societies, it appears to me, that, instead of los- 
ing time in mere speculative discussions, it will 
be more useful to propose a practical, just, and 
opportune maxim for the preservation of pub- 
lic tranquillity, especially in Christian king- 
doms and states, and for affording the means 
of re-establishing it when it has been troubled 
or destroyed. 

" The Maxim. — No one can doubt the legiti- 
macy of the obligation of every member of any 
civil society whatever to obey the government 
which is de facto and unquestionably estab- 
lished. I say ' unquestionably established,' be- 



cause there is here no question of a mere inva- 
sion or temporary occupation in time of war. 
From this maxim follow two consequences : 
1st, to take part in insurrections, or assem- 
blages of people, addressing themselves to the 
constituted authorities with a view to compel 
them to grant what they consider unjust, is 
always an act contrary to right reason ; always 
unlawful, condemned by the natural law and 
by the Gospel. 2dly, individual members of 
society, who combine together and take up 
arms, in small or large numbers, for the pur- 
pose of attacking the established government 
by physical force, are always guilty of rebel- 
lion, a crime strongly opposed to the spirit of 
our divine religion." 

I will not here repeat what I have already 
said on the unsoundness, the inconveniences, 
and the dangers of such a doctrine, but merely 
add, that with respect to governments only 
established de facto, to grant them the right of 
commanding and exacting obedience involves 
a contradiction. To say that a de facto go- 
vernment is bound, whilst it does exist, to pro- 
tect justice, to avoid crimes, to prevent the 
dissolution of society, is merely to maintain 
truths universally admitted, and denied by no 
one ; but to add, that it is unlawful, and con- 
trary to our holy religion, to combine together 
and raise forces for the overthrow of a de facto 
government, is a doctrine which Catholic theo- 
logians have never professed, which true phi- 
losophy has never admitted, and which no na- 
tion has ever observed. 

Note 33, p. 343. 

I insert here certain remarkable passages from 
St. Thomas and Suarez, in which these authors 
explain the opinions to which I have alluded 
in the text, respecting the differences which 
may arise between governors and the governed. 
I refer to what I have already pointed out in 
another place; we are not about to examine so 
much whether such or such doctrines are true, 
as to discover what were the doctrines at the 
time we are speaking of, and what opinion 
the most distinguished doctors formed on the 
delicate questions of which we are treating. 

D. THOMAS. 

(2. 2. Q. 42. art. 2° ad tertium.— Utrum seditio sit 
semper pecatum mortale ?) 

3. Arg. Laudantur qui multitudinem a potes- 
tate tyrannica liberant, sed hoc non de facili 
potest fieri sine aliquadissensione multitudinis, 
dum una pars multitudinis nititur retinere 
tyrannum, alia vero nititur eum abjicere, ergo 
seditio potest fieri sine peccato. 

Ad tertium dicendum; quod regimen tyran- 
nicum non est justum quia non ordinatur ad 
bonum commune, sed ad bonum privatum 
regentis ut patet per Philosophum ; et ideo 
perturbatio hujus regiminis non habet rationem 
seditionis, nisi forte quando sic inordinate per- 
turbatur tyranni regimen, quod multitudo sub- 
jecta majus detrimentum patitur ex pertur- 
batione consequent! quam ex tyranni regimine ; 
magis autem tyrannus seditiosus est, qui in 
populo sibi subjecto discordias et seditiones 
nutrit, ut tutius dominari possit; hoe enim 
tyrannicum est, cum sit ordinatum ad bonum 



472 



NOTES. 



proprium praesidentis cum multitudinis nocu- 
mento. 

Cardinalis Cayetanus in hunc textum. " Quis 
sit autem modus ordinatus perturbandi tyran- 
num et qualem tyrannum, puta secundum re- 
gimen tantum, vel secundum regimen et 
titulum, non est prassentis intentionis : sat est 
nunc, quod utrumque tyrannum licet ordinate 
perturbare absque seditione quandoque ; ilium 
ut bono reipublicae vacet, istum ut expella- 
tur." 

LIB. I. 

De Begimine Principum. (Cap. x.) 

Quod rex et princeps studere debet ad bonum regi- 
men propter bonum sui ipsius, et utile quod inde 
sequitur, cujus contrarium sequitur regimen 
tyrannicum. 

Tyrannorum vero dominium diuturnum esse 
non potest, cum sit multitudini odiosum. Non 
potest enim diu conservari,quod votis multorum 
repugnat. Vix enim a quoquam praesens vita 
transigitur quin aliquas adversitates patiatur. 
Adversitatis autem tempore occasio deesse non 
potest contra tyrannum insurgendi ; et ubi 
adsit occasio, non deerit ex multis vel unus qui 
occasione non utatur. Insurgentem autem po- 
pulus votive prosequitur : nec de facili carebit 
effectu, quod cum favore multitudinis attenta- 
tur. Vix ergo potest contingere, quod tyranni 
dominium protendatur in longum. Hoc etiam 
manifeste patet, si quis consideret unde tyranni 
dominium conservatur. Non n. conservatur 
amore, cum parva, vel nulla sit amicitia sub- 
jectae multitudinis ad tyrannum ut ex praeha- 
bitis patet : de subditorum autem fide tyrannis 
confidendum non est. Non n. invenitur tanta 
virtus in multis, ut fidelitatis virtute repriman- 
tur, ne indebitae servitutis jugum, si possint, 
excutiant. Fortassis autem nec fidelitati con- 
trarium reputabitur secundum opinionem mul- 
torum, si tyrannicae nequitiae qualitercumque 
obvietur. Restat ergo ut solo timore tyranni 
regimen sustentetur ; unde et timeri se a 
subditis tota intentione procurant. Timor 
autem est debile fundamentum. Nam qui 
timore subduntur, si occurrat occasio qua pos- 
sint impunitatem sperare, contra pragsidentes 
insurgunt eo ardentius, quo magis contra vo- 
luntatem ex solo timore cohibebantur. Sicut 
si aqua per violentiam includatur, cum aditum 
invenerit, impetuosius fluit. Sed nec ipse timor 
caret periculo, cum ex nimio timore plerique in 
desperationem inciderint. Salutis autem des- 
peratio audacter ad quaslibet attentanda prae- 
cipitat. Non potest igitur tyranni dominium 
esse diuturnum. Hec etiam non minus 
exemplis, quam rationibus apparet. 

LIB. I. CAP. VI. 

Conclusio ; quod regimen unius simpliciter sit opti- 
mum ; ostendit qualiter multitudo se debet habere 
circa ipsum, quia auferenda est ei occasio ne tyran- 
nizet, ei quod etiam in hoc est tolerandus propter 
majus malum vitandum. 

Quia ergo unius regimen prae eligendum est, 
quod est optimum, et contingit ipsum in tyran- 
nidem converti, quod est pessimum, ut ex dictis 
patet, laborandum est diligenti studio, ut sic 
multitudini provideatur de rege, ut non incidat 
in tyrannum. Primum autem est necessarium, 
ut talis oonditionis homo ab illis ad quos hoc 



spectat officium, promoveatur in regem, quod 
non sit probabile in tyrannidem declinare. 
Unde Samuel Dei providentiam erga institu- 
tionem regis commendans, ait, 1 Regum xiii. : 
Quaesivit sibi Dominus, virum secundum cor 
suum : deinde sic disponenda est regni guber- 
natio, ut regi jam instituto tyrannidis subtra- 
hatur occasio. Simul etiam sic ejus temperetur 
potestas, ut in tyrannidem de facili declinare 
non possit. Quae quidem ut fiant, insequenti- 
bus considerandum erit. Demum vero curan- 
dum est, si rex in tyrannidem diverteret, 
qualiter posset occuri. Et quidem si non fuerit 
excessus tyrannidis, utilius est remissam tyran- 
nidem tolerare ad tempus, quam tyrannum 
agendo multis implicari periculis, quae sunt 
graviora ipsa tyrannide. Potest, n. contingere 
ut qui contra tyrannum agunt praevalere non 
possint, et sic provocatus tyrannus magis de- 
saeviat. Quod si praevalere quis possit adver- 
sus tyrannum, ex hoc ipso proveniunt multoties 
gravissimae dissensiones in populo, sive dum 
in tyrannum insurgitur, sive post dejectionem 
tyranni erga ordinationem regiminis multitudo 
separatur in partes. Contingit etiam ut inter- 
dum dum alicujus auxilio multitudo expellit 
tyrannum, ille potestate accepta tyrannidem 
arripiat, et timens pati ab alio quod ipse in 
alium fecit, graviori servitute subditos oppri- 
mat. Sic enim in tyrannide solet contingere, 
ut posterior gravior fiat quam praecedens, dum 
praecedentia gravamina non deserit, et ipse ex 
sui cordis malitia nova excogitat : unde Syra- 
cusis quondam Dyonisii mortem omnibus desi- 
derantibus, anus quaedem ut incolumnis et sibi 
superstes esset, continue orabat : quod ut 
tyrannus cognovit, cur hoc faceret interrogavit. 
Turn ilia, puella, inquit, existens cum gravem 
tyrannum haberemus, mortem ejus cupiebam, 
quo interfecto, aliquantulum durior successit; 
ejus quoque dominationem finiri magnum exis- 
timabam, tertium te importuniorem habere 
ccepimus rectorem ; itaque si tu f'ueris absump- 
tus, deterior in locum tuum succedet. Et si 
sit intolerabilis excessus tyrannidis, quibusdam 
visum fuit, ut ad fortium virorum virtutem per- 
tineat tyrannum interimere, seque pro libera- 
tione multitudinis exponere periculis mortis : 
cujus rei exemplum etiam in veteri Testamento 
habetur. Nam Ajoth quidam Eglon regem 
Moab, qui gravi servitute populum Dei preine- 
bat, sica infixa in ejus femore interemit, et 
factus est populi judex. Sed hoc Apostolicaa 
doctrinae non congruit. Docet n. nos Petrus, 
non bonis tantum etmodestis, verum etiam dis- 
colis Dominis reverenter subditos esse. 2 Petr. 
ii. Haec est enim gratia, si propter conscien- 
tiam Dei sustineat quis tristitias patiens in- 
juste : unde cum multi Romani Imperatores 
fidem Christi persequerentur tyrannice, mag- 
naque multitudo tarn nobilium, quam populi 
esset ad fidem conversa, non resistendo, sed 
mortem patienter et armati sustinentes pro 
Christo laudantur, ut in sacra Thebasorum le- 
gione manifeste apparet ; magisque Ajoth judi- 
candus est hostem interemisse, quam populi 
rectorem, licet tyrannum ; unde et in veteri 
Testamento leguntur occisi fuisse hi qui occi- 
derunt Joas regem Juda, quamvis a cultu Dei 
recedentem, eorumque filiis reservatis secun- 
dum legis praeceptum. Esset autem hoc mul- 
titudini periculosum et ejus rectoribus, si 
privata praesumptione aliqui attentarent praesi- 



NOTES. 



473 



dentium necem etiam tyrannorum. Plerumque 
enim hujusmodi periculis magis exponunt se 
mali quam boni. Malis autem solet esse grave 
dominium non minus regum quam tyrannorum, 
quia secundum sententiam Salomonis : Dissipat 
impios rex sapiens. Magis igitur ex hujus 
praesumptione immineret periculum multitu- 
dini de amissione regis, quam remedium de 
subtractione tyranni. Videtur autem magis 
contra tyrannorum saevitiam non privata prae- 
sumptione aliquorum, sed auctoritate publica 
procedendum. Primo quidem, si ad jus multi- 
tudinis alicujus pertineat sibi providere de 
rege, non injuste ab eadem rex institutus potest 
destitui, vel refraenari ejus potestas, si potes- 
tate regia tyrannice abutatur. Nec putanda 
est talis multitudo infideliter agere tyrannum 
destituens, etiamsi eidem in perpetuo se ante 
subjecerat: quia hoc ipse meruit in multitudi- 
nis regimine se non fideliter gerens, ut exigit 
regis officium, quod ei pactum a subditis non 
reservetur. Sic Romani Tarquinium superbum 
quem in regem susceperant, propter ejus et 
filiorum tyrannidem a regno ejecerunt substi- 
tuta ininori, scilicet consularia potestate. Sic 
etiam Domitianus, qui modestissimis Impera- 
toribus Vespasiano patri, et Tito fratri ejus 
successerat, dum tyrannidem exercet, a senatu 
Romano interemptus est, omnibus quae perverse 
Romanis feceratper Senatusconsultum juste et 
salubriter in irritum revocatis. Quo factum 
est, ut beatus Joannes Evangelista dilectus Dei 
discipulus, qui per ipsum Doinitianum in Path- 
mos insulam fuerat exilio relegatus, ad Ephe- 
sum per Senatusconsultum remitteretur. Si 
vero ad jus alicujus superioris pertineat multi- 
tudini providere de rege, spectandum est ab eo 
remedium contra tyranni nequitiam. Sic 
Archelai, qui in Judasa pro Herode patre suo 
regnare jam cceperat, paternam malitiam imi- 
tantis, Judaeis contra eum querimoniam ad 
Cesarem Augustum deferentibus, primo qui- 
dem potestas diminuitur, ablato sibi regio no- 
mine, et medietate regni sui inter duos fratres 
suos divisa : deinde cum nec sic a tyrannide 
compesceretur a Tiberio Cesare relegatus est 
in exilium apud Lugdunum Galliae civitatem. 
Quod si omnino contra tyrannum auxilium hu- 
manum haberi non potest, recurrendum est ad 
regem omnium Deum, quid est adjutor in op- 
portunitatibus in tribulatione. Ejus enim po- 
tential subest, ut cor tyranni crudele convertat 
in mansuetudinem, secundum Salomonis sen- 
tentiam. Proverb, xii. Cor regis in manu Dei 
quocumque voluerit inclinavit illud. Ipse enim 
regis Assueri crudelitatem, qui Judaeis mortem 
parabat, in mansuetudinem vertit. Ipse est qui 
itaNabuchodonosor, crudelem regem convertit, 
quod factus est divinse potential praedicator. 
Nunc igitur, inquit, ego Nabuchodonosor laudo, 
et magnifico, et glorifico regem coeli, quia opera 
ejus vera et viae ejus judicia, et gradientes in 
superbia potest humiliare. Dan. iv. Tyrannos 
vero quos reputat conversione indignos, potest 
auferre de medio vel ad infimum statum redu- 
cere, secundum illud Sapientes Eccles. x. Se- 
dem ducum superborum destruxit Deus, et se- 
dere fecit mites pro eis. Ipse enim qui videns 
afflictionem populi sui in JEgypto, et audiens 
eorum clamorem Pharaonem tyrannum dejecit 
cum exercitu suo in mare ; ipse est qui memo- 
ratum Nabuchodonosor prius superbientem non 
solum ejectum de regni solio, sed etiam de ho- 
60 2 



minum consortio, in similitudinem bestias com- 
mutavit. Nec enim abreviata manus ejus est, 
ut populum suum a tyrannis liberare non possit. 
Promittit enim populo suo perlsaiam, requiem 
se daturum a labore et confusione, ac servitute 
dura, qua ante servierat, et per Ezech. xxxiv. 
dicit : Liberabo meum gregem de ore eorum 
pastorum, qui pascunt seipsos. Sed ud hoc 
beneficium populus a Deo consequi mereatur, 
debet a peccatis cessare, quia in ultionem pec- 
cati divina permissione impii accipiunt princi- 
patum, dicente Domino per Osee xiii. : Dabo 
tibi regem in furore meo, et in Job. xxxiv. di- 
citur, quod regnare facit hominem hypocritam 
propter peccata populi. Tollenda est igitur 
culpa, ut cesset a tyrannorum plaga. 

SUAREZ. 

(Disp. 13. De Bello. sect. 8.— Utrum seditio sit 
intrinsece mala?) 

Seditio dicitur bellum commune intra eam- 
dem Rempublicam, quod geri potest, vel inter 
duas partes ejus, vel inter Principem et Rem- 
publicam. Dico primo : Seditio inter duas par- 
tes Reipublicaa semper est mala ex parte ag- 
gressoris : ex parte vero defendentis se justa 
est. Hoc secundum per se est notum. Pri- 
mum ostenditur : quia nulla cernitur ibi legitima 
auctoritas ad indicendum bellum ; haec enim 
residet in supremo Principe, ut vidimus sect. 
2. Dices, interdum poterit Princeps earn aucto- 
ritatem concedere, si magna necessitas publica 
! urgeat. At tunc jam non censetur aggredi 
j pars Reipublicae, sed Princeps ipse ; sicque 
nulla erit seditio de qua loquimur. Sed, quid 
si ilia Reipublicae pars sit vere offensa ab alia 
neque possit per Principem jus suum obtinere? 
Respondeo, non posse plus efficere, quam pos- 
sit persona privata, ut ex superioribus constare 
facile potest. 

Dico secundo : Bellum Reipublicae contra 
Principem, etiamsi aggressivum, non est in- 
trinsece malum : habere tamen debet condi- 
tiones justi alias belli, ut honestetur, Con- 
clusio solum habet locum, quando Princeps est 
tyrannus ; quod duobus modis contingit, ut 
Cajet. not. 2. 2. q. 64 articulo primo ad tertium : 
primo si tyrannus sit quoad dominium, et po- 
testatem : secundo solum quoad regimen. 
Quando priori modo accidit tyrannus, tota 
Respublica, et quodlibet ejus membrum jus 
habet contra ilium ; uncle quilibet potest se ac 
Rempublicam a tyrannide vindicare. Ratio 
est ; quia tyrannus ille aggressor est, et inique 
bellum inovet contra Rempublicam, et singula 
membra; unde omnibus competit jus defensio- 
nis. Ita Cajetanus eo loco, sumique potest ex 
D. Thorn, in secundo, distinctione 44, quaestione 
secunda, articulo secundo. De posteriori 
tyranno idem docuit Joann. Hus, imo de omni 
iniquo superiore ; quoddamnatum est in Conci- 
lio Constant. Sessione 8 etlo. Unde certa Veri- 
tas est, contra hujusmodi tyrannum nullam pri- 
vatam personam, aut potestatem imperfectam 
posse juste movere bellum aggressivum, atque 
illud esset propie seditio. Probatur, quoniam 
ille, ut supponitur, verus est Dominus : infe- 
riores autem jus non habent indicendi bellum, 
sed defendendi se tantum ; quod non habet lo- 
cum in hoc tyranno : namque ille non semper 
singulis facit injuriam, atque si invaderent, id 
solum possent efficere, quod ad suam defen- 
p2 



474 



NOTES. 



sionem sufficeret. At vero tota Respublica 
posset bello insurgere contra ejusmodi tyran- 
num, neque tunc excitaretur propia seditio (hoc 
siquidem nomen in malam partem sumi con- 
suevit). Ratio est : quia tunc tota Respublica 
superior est Rege : nam, cum ipsa dederit illi 
potestatem, ea conditione dedisse censetur, ut 
politice, non tyrannice regeret, alias ab ipsa 
posset deponi. Est tamen observandum, ut ille 
vere, et manifeste tyrannice agat ; concurrant- 
que aliae conditiones ad honestatem belli posi- 
tas. Lege Divum Thomum 1 de regimine 
Principum, cap. 6. 

Dico tertio : Bellum Reipublicae contra Re- 
gem neutro modo tyrannum, est propiissime 
seditio, et intrinsece malum. Est certa, et inde 
constat : quia deest tunc et causa justa, et po- 
testas. Ex quo etiam e contrario constat, bel- 
lum Principis contra Rempublicam sibi subdi- 
tam, ex parte potestatis posse esse justum, si 
adsint aliae conditiones ; si vero desint, injus- 
tum omnino esse.* 

Listen to the language of P. Marquez in 
Spain, in the so-called despotic times : it is well 
known that his work intituled El Gobernador 
Gristiano was not one of tbose obscure books 
which are never widely circulated ; it met 
with such success that it went through several 
editions, as well in Spain as in foreign coun- 
tries. I will give the title at length, and I will 
add, at the same time, a note of the editions 
published at different epochs, in different coun- 
tries, in different languages, — a note which is 
ito be found in the edition of Madrid in 1773. 

"The Christian Magistrate (El Gobernador 
Cristiano), according to the Life of Moses, the 
Ruler of the People of God, by the R. P. M. 
•J. R. John Marquez, 0. S. A., preacher to his 
Majesty King Philip III., Examiner of the 
Holy Office of the Inquisition, and Evening 
"Professor of Theology at the University of 
r'Salamanca. New and sixth edition, with per- 
mission. Madrid, 1773." 

" The Christian Magistrate, composed at the 
irequest and in honor of His Excellency the 
Duke of Feria, first published at Salamanca, 
In the year 1612 ; a second edition in the same 
town In 1619 ; a third edition at Alcala in 1634, 
and a fourth at Madrid in 1610 •, the fifth edi- 
tion was published out of Spain, at Brussels, 
in 1664. This is the masterpiece among works 
of this nature which have been written among us. 

"Father Martin of St. Bernard, of the Order 
•of Citeaux, translated this work into Italian, 
and had it printed at Naples, in 1646. It was 
also translated into French by M. de Virion, 
counsellor to the Duke of Lorraine, and it was 
printed at Nancy in 1621." 

BOOK i. chap. 8. 

"We have now to answer the contrary ob- 
jections. We maintain that neither the di- 
vine nor the natural law has given to states 
the power of arresting the progress of tyranny 
by means so violent as that of shedding the 
blood of princes, they being the vicars of God, 
divinely invested with the right of life and 
death over other men. But so far as resisting 
their cruelty is concerned, it is incontestable 

* An extract from Bellarmine de Romano Pont, 
fa here omitted. 



that it may and ought to be done. They are 
not to be obeyed in any thing opposed to the 
law of God; we must, therefore, escape from 
their wicked commands, and prevent their 
blows, as Jonathan did with regard to Saul, 
his father, when he saw him take his spear to 
smite David, and when, rising from the table, 
he went in search of the latter, and warned 
him of his danger. It is also sometimes allow- 
able to resist princes by force of arms, in order 
to prevent them from executing notoriously 
rash and cruel determinations ; for, according 
to the words of St. Thomas, this is not to ex- 
cite sedition, but to stop and prevent it. Ter- 
tullian affirms the same thing when he says : 
'Illis nomen factionis accommodandum est, 
qui in odium bonorum et proborum conspirant, 
cum boni, cum pii congregantur, non est factio 
dicenda, sed curia.' 

" This is the reason why the blessed St. Her- 
menegildus, a glorious Spanish martyr, took 
up arms and entered the field against King 
Leovigildus, an Arian, to resist the great per- 
secution directed by this prince against the 
Catholics. This fact is related by the contem- 
porary historians. True, St. Gregory of Tours 
condemns this act of our king-martyr, not for 
having resisted his sovereign, but because the 
former was both his king and his father : and 
he maintains that although he was a heretic, 
his son ought not to have resisted him. This 
reply, however, is not well founded, as Baro- 
nius observes. Moreover, the authority of this 
Gregory was combated by another Gregory, 
greater than he, St. Gregory the Great, who, 
in the preface to his book of Morales, approves 
of the embassy of Leander, sent to Constanti- 
nople by St. Hermenegildus, to solicit the aid 
of Tiberius against Leovigildus, his father. It 
is indubitable that however strong may be the 
obligation of filial piety, that of religion is 
still stronger. The latter obliges us to sacri- 
fice every thing if it be necessary ; and it is 
on account of cases of this nature, that it is 
written of the tribe of Levi : 1 Qui dixerunt 
patri suo et matri suae, necio vos, et fratribus 
suis ignoro vos, nescierunt filios suos.' Such 
was the conduct of the Levites when they took 
up arms, by the command of Moses, to punish 
their relations for the sin of idolatry. 

"If the prince should go so far as personally 
to make an attempt upon the life of the subject 
who has no other means of defending himself 
than killing him, — as when Nero, parading the 
streets of Rome, followed by a troop of. armed 
men, attacked the quiet and unsuspecting citi- 
zens ; I say, that in such a case it would be al- 
lowable to kill him : for if it is true, as Fr. 
Dominie de Soto observes, that the subject in 
this extremity is to suffer himself to be killed, 
and so prefer the monarch's life to his own, it 
is solely in the case when the death of the 
monarch would give rise to great troubles and 
civil wars in the state,- in any other case it 
would be monstrously inhuman to force men to 
a thing so insupportable. But when the sub- 
ject's property is merely to be defended against 
the cupidity of the monarch, it should not be 
allowable to lay hands on him ; for it is a pri- 
vilege granted to princes by divine and human 
laws, that their blood shall not be spilt for any 
outrage which, committed by any other viola- 
tor of private property, would be a sufficient 



NOTES. 



475 



motive for taking away his life. The reason 
of this is, that the life of the king is the soul 
and bond of the state ; that it is of more im- 
portance than the property of individuals ; 
that it is better to tolerate grievances of this 
nature, than to destroy the head of the state." 

Note 34, p. 348. 

In order to give an idea of the means em- 
ployed at this epoch to limit the power of the 
monarch, by forming associations, whether 
among the people themselves, or between the 
people, the grandees, and the clergy, I insert 
here the letter, or Charier of Fraternity [Her- 
mandad), which the kingdoms of Leon and 
Galicia made with Castile. I have extracted 
this piece literally from the collection intituled 
Bullarium ordinis militioz santi Jacobi Glorio- 
sissimi Hispaniarum patroni, p. 223. It will 
prove to us the existence already, at a remote 
epoch of our history, of a lively instinct for 
liberty, although ideas were still limited to a 
secondary order. 

" 1. In the name of God and of the blessed 
Virgin. Amen. 

"Be it known to all those who shall read 
this letter, that on account of the innumerable 
acts of injustice, injuries, deeds of violence, 
murders, imprisonments, insolent refusals of 
audience, opprobriums, and other outrages 
without measure, committed against us by the 
king D. Alphonso, to the contempt of God, of 
justice, of right, and to the great detriment 
of all these kingdoms; we, the infantes, the 
prelates, the rich men, the councils, the orders, 
the knights of the kingdoms of Leon and Ga- 
licia, seeing ourselves overwhelmed with in- 
justice and ill-treatment, as we have stated 
above, and finding it insupportable ; our lord 
the infante Don Sancho has thought good and 
appointed that we should be of one mind and 
of one heart, he with us and we with him, to 
maintain our laws, our privileges, and our 
charters, in our usages, our manners, our liber- 
ties, and franchises, which we enjoyed under 
king Don Alphonso, his great-grandfather, the 
conqueror at the battle of Merida, and under 
king Don Ferdinand, his grand-father ; under 
the emperor and all the other kings of Spain, 
their predecessors ; and under the king Don 
Alphonso, his father, — all princes who have 
best merited our gratitude ; and our said lord 
the infante Don Sancho has bound us to this ef- 
fect by oath and promise, as it is certain by let- 
ters between him and us. Considering that it is 
agreeable to the service of God, of the blessed 
Virgin, of the court of Heaven, to the defence 
and honor of the holy Church, of the infante 
Don Sancho, and of the kings who shall suc- 
ceed him, in fine, to the advantage of the 
whole country, we ordain and establish frater- 
nity (hermandad), now and for ever, we the 
whole of the kingdoms above named, with the 
councils of the kingdom of Castile, with the 
infantes, the rich men, the hidalgos, the prelates, 
the orders, the knights, and all others who are 
in this kingdom, and who are willing to be 
with us, as it has just been said. 

"2. Be it known to them, that we will insure 
to our lord the infante Don Sancho, and to all 
other kings who shall succeed him, all their 
rights, all their suzerainty, wholly and entirely, 



as we have promised, and as they are contain- 
ed in the privilege which he has given us to 
this effect. Justice shall continue to be de- 
creed by the suzerainty. The Martiniega* 
shall be paid in the place and in the manner 
in which it was customary to pay it, according 
to right, to Don Alphonso, the conqueror at 
the battle of Merida. The money f shall be 
paid at the end of seven years in the usual 
place and manner, the kings not enjoining the 
coining of money. The repast (yantar) \ shall 
be taken in the place in which it was usual for 
the kings to take it, according to the fuero, 
once a year, while visiting the very place, as 
it was given to the king Don Alphonso, his 
great-grandfather, and to the king Don Ferdi- 
nand, his grandfather. The fonsadera, % when 
the king is with the army, in the customary 
place, according to the fuero and right in the 
days of the abovenamed kings, guaranteeing 
to each the privileges, charters, liberties, and 
franchises appertaining to us. 

" 3. Be it known to them moreover, that we 
will maintain all our rights, usages, customs, 
privileges, charters, all our liberties and fran- 
chises, always and in such a manner, that should 
the king, the infante Don Sancho, or the kings 
who shall succeed them, or any of the lords, 
alcades, merinos, or any other persons, attempt 
to infringe upon them, in whole or in part, in 
any way or at any time, we will unite into one 
entire whole, and inform the king, the infante 
Don Sancho, or those who shall succeed them, 
of the nature of our complaint, and ask them 
if they are willing to reform j and if not, we 
will unite into one entire body to defend and 
protect ourselves, as it is ordained in the 
charter granted us by the infante Don Sancho. 

" 4. Moreover, be it known to them that no 
member of this hermandad shall be chastised, 
and nothing shall be taken from him contrary 
to right and the custom of the place, in the 
councils of the said hermandad ; and it shall 
not be allowable to take from him more than 
is demanded by the fuero, in the place in which 
he shall be. 

" 5. We protest, that if an alcade, a merino, 
or any other person, on the authority of a letter 
of the king, of the infante Don Sancho, by his 
command, or that of the kings who shall suc- 
ceed him, shall kill a man of our hermandad 
without hearing him and judging him accord- 
ing to law, that we, the hermandad, will take 
away his life for such an act. And if we cannot 
arrest him, he shall be declared an enemy to 
the hermandad ; every member of the herman- 
dad who shall have concealed him shall fall 
under the penalty of perjury and felony, and 
shall be treated in his turn as an enemy to this 
hermandad. 

"6. We declare, moreover, that the port- 
duties shall be paid by us only in conformity 
to the rights and usages of the times of Don 
Alphonso, or the king Don Ferdinand, and 
the councils of the hermandad will not permit 
any person to receive them beyond this mea- 
sure. 

* Tribute that was paid on St. Martin's day. 
\ Another tribute. 

% A tribute for the king's repast during his jour, 
neys. 

| Tribute for maintaining the ditches of the castles 
j in Castile, and the armies. 



476 



NOTES. 



" 7. Moreover, no infante or rich man shall 
be a merino or grand bailiff in the kingdoms 
of Leon and Galicia. Neither can these func- 
tions be exercised by an infan§on, or a knight 
having notoriously a great number of knights 
or other men of the country in vassalage; 
neither can they be exercised by a stranger to 
the country. And we so will it, because such 
was the custom in the days of the king Don 
Alphonso and of the king Don Ferdinand. 

"8. All those who may wish to appeal from 
the judgment of the king, or of Don Sancho, 
or of other kings who shall succeed him, may 
do so ; they shall have recourse to the book 
of the Fuero Juzgo, in the kingdom of Leon, 
as was usual in the days of the kings who pre- 
ceded this. That if the right of appeal be 
refused to any who may wish to invoke it, we, 
on our part, will act according to the injunc- 
tions contained in the charters granted us by 
Don Sancho. 

« 9. That we may guarantee and execute all 
the acts of this hermandad, we make a seal of 
two plates, bearing the following impressions : 
upon one of the plates, the figure of a lion ; and 
upon the other, the figure of St. James on 
horseback, with a sword in his right hand ; in 
his left, a standard with a cross at the top, and 
shells. The inscription shall be thus expressed: 
' The Seal of the Hermandad of the Kingdoms 
of Leon and Galicia.' This seal shall be affixed 
to the documents which shall be required by 
this hermandad. 

" 10. We the whole hermandad of Castile, 
make a promise and render homage to all the 
hermandad of the kingdoms of Leon and Gali- 
cia, that we will assist each other well and 
loyally to keep and maintain every one of the 
above-named things. That if we fail to do so, 
we are traitors for this alone, like him who 
slays his lord or surrenders a castle ; and may 
we never in that case have either hands, or 
tongues, or arms to protect ourselves. 

"11. But lest there should be any doubt 
about the pact, we are now making, in order 
that this pact may be for ever inviolate, we seal 
this letter with the two seals of the hermandad 
of Castile, Leon, and Galicia, and place it in 
the hands of D. Pedro Nunez, and the Order 
of the Knights of St. John, who are united 
with us in this hermandad. Given at Valla- 
dolid, the 8th day of July, in the year one 
thousand three hundred and twenty." 

Spain had passed through many centuries 
without knowing of any other religion than 
the Catholic. She still preserved in all its 
force and vigor, the idea that the king should 
be the first to observe the laws; that he could 
not rule the people according to his caprice; 
that he ought to govern by principles of jus- 
tice and views of public expediency. Saavedra, 
in his Devises, thus expressed himself: — 

"1st. Laws are vain when the prince who 
promulgates them does not confirm and uphold 
them by his own life and example. A law will 
appear lenient to the people when observed by 
its author. 

" In commune jubes si quid, censesve tenendum, 
Primus jussa sibi, tunc observantior sequi 
Fit populus, nec ferre vetat, cum videri ipsum 
Auctorem parere sibi. 

" The laws promulgated by Servius Tullius 
were not only intended for the people, but also 



for kings. The disputes between the monarch 

and his subjects were to be settled in conformity 
with these laws, as Tacitus relates of Tiberius : 
'Although we are not subject to the laws,' said 
the emperors Severus and Antonius, ' let us con- 
form our lives to these laws.' The monarch is 
bound by the law not merely from the fact of 
its being a law, but from the very reason upon 
which it is founded, when it is natural and 
common to all, and not particular and exclu- 
sively destined to the right government of sub- 
jects ; for in this case the observance of the 
law merely concerns the subject, although the 
monarch, if it should so happen, is bound to 
obey it, in order to render it tolerable to others. 
Such appears to have been the meaning of the 
mysterious command given by God to Ezechiel, 
to eat the volume, that others seeing him the 
first to taste the laws and declare them good, 
might be induced to imitate him. The kings 
of Spain are so far subject to the laws, that 
the Treasury, in causes relating to the royal 
patrimony, is absolutely subject to the same 
laws as the least of his subjects ; and in doubt- 
ful cases, the Treasury is condemned. Philip 
II. thus ordained it; and on an occasion in 
which his grandson Philip IV., the glorious 
father of V. A., was personally brought to 
judgment in an important trial of the Chamber, 
before the royal council, the judges had the 
noble determination to condemn him, and his 
majesty had the rectitude to hear the sentence 
without expressing any indignation. Happy 
empire, in which the cause of the monarch is 
always the least favored!" 

Note 35, p. 356. 

Sufficient attention has not perhaps been paid 
to the merit of the industrial organization intro- 
duced into Europe from the earliest ages, and 
which became more and more diffused after the 
twelfth century. I allude to the trades-unions, 
and other associations, which, established un- 
der the influence of the Catholic religion, com- 
monly placed themselves under the patronage 
of some Saint, and had pious foundations for 
the celebration of their feasts, and for assist- 
ing each other in their necessities. Our cele- 
brated Capmany, in his Historical memoirs on 
the Marine, Commerce, and the Arts of the an- 
cient City o f Barcelona, has published a collec- 
tion of documents, very valuable for the history 
of the working classes and of the development 
of their influence on politics. Few works have 
appeared in foreign countries, in the latter part 
of the last century, of such great merit as that 
of our fellow-countryman, published in 1779. 
One very interesting chapter of this work is 
devoted to the institution of trades-corpora- 
tions. I give here a copy of the chapter, which 
I particularly recommend to the perusal of 
those persons who imagine that nothing had 
been thought of in Europe for the benefit of the 
laboring classes, of those who are so foolish as 
to look upon that as a means of slavery and 
exclusivism, which was in reality a means of 
encouragement and of mutual support. It also 
appears to me that, by reading the philosophi- 
cal remarks of Capmany, every sensible man 
will be convinced that Europe, from the earliest 
ages, has possessed systems adapted to the en- 
couragement of industry, to the preservation 



NOTES. 



477 



of it from the fatal agitations of those times, 
to secure esteem for it, and to the legitimate 
and salutary development of the popular ele- 
ment. It will be no less useful to present this 
sketch to certain foreign writers, continually 
occupied with social and political economy," and 
who, nevertheless, in compiling the history of 
that science, have not even been acquainted 
with a work so important for every thing con- 
nected with the middle ages of Europe, from 
the eleventh to the eighteenth century. 

n Of the institution of the Trades-Corporations 
and other Associations of Artisans at Barce- 
lona. 

"No memoir has hitherto been discovered 
which might serve to enlighten and guide us 
in fixing the exact epoch of the institution of 
the trades-associations at Barcelona.* But 
according to all the conjectures furnished by 
ancient monuments, it is very probable that 
the political erection or formation of the bodies 
of laborers took place in the time of Don Jaime 
L, under whose glorious reign the arts were 
developed under a favorable influence ; whilst 
commerce and navigation took a higher flight, 
owing to the expeditions of the Aragonese arms 
beyond the seas. Increased facilities in the 
means of transport have given an impetus to 
industry ; and an increasing population, the 
natural result of labor, by its reaction apon 
labor, augmented the demand for it. At Bar- 
celona, as every where else, trades- corporations 
naturally arose when the wants and the tastes 
of society had, of necessity, grown so multi- 
farious, that artisans were forced, with a view 
to secure protection to their industry, to form 
themselves into communities. Luxury, and 
the tastes of society, like every other object 
of commerce, are subject to continual change; 
hence, new branches of trade are continually 
springing up and displacing others ; so that at 
one period each separate art runs into various 
branches, whilst at another, several art,s are 
combined, into one. At Barcelona, corporate 
industry has passed through all these vicissi- 
tudes in the course of five centuries. The 
hardware trade has comprised at different peri- 
ods eleven or twelve branches, and consequently 
afforded subsistence to as many classes of fa- 
milies, whilst at the present time these same 
branches are reduced to eight, in consequence 
of certain changes in fashions and customs. 

" In accordance with the social system which 
generally prevailed at that time in most Eu- 
ropean countries, it was found necessary to 
bestow liberty and privileges upon an indus- 
trious and mercantile people, who thus became 
a great source of strength and support to kings ; 
and this could not be effected without classify- 

* " It is extremely difficult to ascertain the origin 
of the trades-corporations, even in those towns which 
have been the longest and the best disciplined. — 
Sandi, in his Civil History of Venice, (t. ii. part 1, lib. 
iv. p. 767), after having reckoned sixty-one trades- 
corporations existing in that capital at the beginning 
of his century, declares that it is impossible to assign 
to each of these corporations the date of its origin, 
or that of its first statutes. This historian neverthe- 
less consulted all the archives of the republic; he 
contents himself with observing, that none of the 
corporations are anterior to the fourteenth century." 
(The notes which accompany this chapt r art those of 
Capmany himself.) 



ing the 'citizens. But these lines of demarca- 
tion could not be maintained distinct and in- 
violate without a political division of the va- 
rious corporations in which both men and their 
occupations were classified. This division was 
the more necessary in a city like Barcelona, 
which, ever since the middle of the thirteenth 
century, had assumed a sort of democratic in- 
dependence in its mode of government. Thus, 
in Italy, the first country in the West that re- 
established the name and the influence of the 
people, after these had been effaced in the iron 
ages by Gothic rule, the industrial classes had 
already been formed into corporations, which 
gave stability to the arts and trades, and con- 
ferred great honors upon them in those free 
cities, where, amidst the flux and reflux of in- 
vasions, the artisan became a senator, and the 
senator an artisan. Wars and factions, en- 
demic evils in that delightful country at the 
time of which we are speaking, could not, in 
spite of all their ravages, effect the destruction 
of the associated trades, whose political exis- 
tence, when once their members were admitted 
to a share in the government, formed the very 
basis of the constitution of both nations, inas- 
much as both were industrial and mercantile. 
At Barcelona the trades were well regulated, 
prosperous, and flourishing, under that muni- 
cipal system, and that consular jurisprudence, 
of which commerce, and its invariable concom- 
itant, industry, have always stood in need. It 
was thus that this capital became one of the 
most celebrated centres of the manufacturing 
industry of the middle ages — a reputation 
which it has maintained and increased up to 
the present time. In like manner, it was un- 
der the name and rule of corporations and bro- 
therhoods that trades were established in Flan- 
ders, in France, and in England, countries in 
which the arts have been carried to their 
highest degree of perfection and renown. The 
trades-corporations of Barcelona, even when 
viewed merely as a necessary institution for 
the due regulation of the primitive form of 
municipal government, should be regarded as 
most important, whether for the preservation 
of the arts, or as forming the basis of the in- 
fluence of the artisans themselves. It is at 
once evident, from the experience of five cen- 
turies, that trades-unions have effected un- 
speakable good in Barcelona, were it only by 
preserving, as an imperishable deposite, the 
love, the tradition, and the memory of the arts. 
They have formed so many rallying points, so 
many banners, as it were, under which more 
than once the shattered forces of industry have 
found refuge ; and have thus been enabled to re- 
cover their energy and activity, and to perpe- 
tuate their existence to our own days, in spite 
of pestilence, wars, factions, and a multitude 
of other calamities, which exhaust men's ener- 
gies, overthrow their habitations, and change 
their manners. If Barcelona, so often visited 
by these physical and political plagues, had 
possessed no community, no bond, no common 
interest among its artisans, it would certainly 
have witnessed the destruction of their skill, 
their economy, and their activity, as is ^ the 
case with beavers, when their communities 
have been broken up and dispersed by the 
hunters.* 

* We here recognise many ideas taken from a 



478 



NOTES. 



"By a happy effect of the security enjoyed ] 
by families in their different trades, and thanks 
to the aid, or mont-de-piete, established in the 
very bosom of the corporation for its necessi- 
tous members, who, without this assistance, 
might have been plunged into misery, these 
economical establishments at Barcelona have 
directly contributed to maintain the prosperity 
of the arts, by shutting out misery from the 
workshop, and preserving the operatives from 
indigence. Without this corporate police, by 
which each trade is surrounded, the property 
and the fortune of the artisan would have been 
exposed to the greatest risks : moreover, the 
credit and stability of the trades themselves 
would have been perilled ; for then the quack, 
the unskilled operative, and the obscure ad- 
venturer, might have imposed upon the public 
with impunity, and a pernicious latitude might 
have taken the place of liberty. On the other 
hand, the trades-corporations being powerful 
associations, each one by itself being governed 
by a unanimity of intelligence and a communi- 
ty of interests, could purchase their stocks of 
raw materials seasonably and advantageously. 
They supplied the wants of the masters ; they 
made advances, or stood security, for those of 
their members who lacked either time or funds 
for making great preliminary disbursements 
of capital at their own cost. Besides, these 
corporations, comprehending and representing 
the industry of the nation, and consequently 
feeling an interest in its maintenance, address- 
ed from time to time memorials to the Muni- 
cipal Council, or to the Cortes, relative to the 
injuries they were sustaining, or the approach 
of which they, as it ofte\i happened, foresaw 
from the introduction of counterfeit goods, or 
of foreign productions, which is a cause of ruin 
to our industry. In fine, without the institu- 
tion of trades-corporations, instruction would 
have been void of order and fixed rules ; for 
where there are no masters duly authorized 
and permanently established, neither will 
there be any disciples; and all regulations, in 
default of an executive power to see them ob- 
served, will be disregarded and trodden under 
foot. Trades-corporations are so necessary to 
the preservation of the arts, that the various 
trades known at the present day in this capital 
have derived their appellations and their origin 
from the economical divisions, and from the 
arts established by these corporations. When 
the blacksmith in his shop made ploughshares, 
nails, keys, knives, swords, <fcc, the names of 
the trades of the blacksmith, the nailer, the 
cutler, the armorer, <fec. were unknown ; and 
as there was no special and particular instruc- 
tion in each of these branches of labor, the 
separation of which afterwards formed so many 
new arts maintained by their respective com- 
munities, these trades were unknown. 

" The second political advantage resulting 
from the institution of trades-corporations at 
Barcelona was, the esteem and consideration 

work which saw the light in 1774, from the press of 
Sancha, under the title of Dicours economique- poli- 
tique pour la defensedu travail mecanique desouvriers, 
par D. Ramon Miguel Palacio. The author of these 
memoirs, fearing to be accused of a gross plagiarism, 
observes that, being obliged here to treat of this same 
matter, he was forced to adopt many of the ideas con- 
tained in this work, which at that time he thought it 
proper to publish without affixing his real name." 



in which at all times these establishments 

caused both the artisans and the arts to be 
held. This wise institution won respect for 
the operative classes, by constituting them a 
visible and permanent order in the state. 
Hence it is that the conduct and the mode of 
life of the Barcelonians have ever been such 
as are to be found only amongst an honorable 
people. Never having been confounded with 
any exempted and privileged body (for the 
trades-corporations draw a circle around their 
members, and let them know what they are, 
and what they are worth), these people learn- 
ed that there was honor and virtue within 
their own sphere, and labored to preserve 
these qualities : so certain is it that social dis- 
tinctions in a nation have more influence than 
is sometimes believed in upholding the spirit 
of each social class. 

" Another view of this question shows us 
that trades-corporations form communities, 
governed by an economic code, which assigns 
to each corporation certain employments and 
certain honors, to which every individual 
member may aspire. Even men's prejudices, 
when wisely directed, sometimes produce ad- 
mirable effects. Thus the government, the 
I administration of these bodies, in which the 
' artisan always enjoyed the prerogative of 
1 managing the resources and the interests of 
I his trade and of his fellow-members, with the 
title of Counsellor, or Elder (Prohombre), won 
for the mechanical arts of Barcelona public and 
general esteem ; whilst the pre-eminence in a 
festival or an assembly serves with these men 
to soften the rigors of manual labor, and the 
disadvantages of their inferior condition. At 
the same time that the trades of Barcelona, 
formed into well-organized bodies, fixed and 
preserved the arts in that capital, they had the 
further credit, by acting as political bodies 
of the most numerous class of the people, of 
gaining a high esteem for their members. The 
obscure artisan, without matriculation, or a 
common bond, continues isolated and wander- 
ing ; he dies, and with him perishes his art ; 
or at the first reverse of fortune, he emigrates 
and abandons his craft. What consideration 
can wretched wandering followers of any trade 
obtain in a country ? Just such as knife-grin- 
ders and tinkers possess in the provinces of 
Spain. At Barcelona, all the trades have con- 
stantly enjoyed the same general esteem, be- 
cause all have been established and governed 
upon a system which has rendered them fixed, 
respectable, and prosperous. 

"The esteem in which the trades of Barcelo- 
na were held from the time when the munici- 
pal government had formed them into national 
corporations, the agents of public economy, 
gave rise to the laudable and useful custom of 
perpetuating trades in the same families. In 
fact the people having learned that, without 
quitting the class to which they belonged, 
they could preserve the respect and considera- 
tion due to useful and honorable citizens, no 
longer desired to quit it, and were no longer 
ashamed of their condition. When trades are 
held in honor, which is the consequence of 
the stability and civil properties of corpora- 
tions, they naturally become hereditary. Now, 
the advantages both to the artisan and the 
arts, resulting from this transmission of trades, 



NOTES. 



479 



are so real and so 'well known, that it is need- 
less to specify them here, or to dwell upon their 
salutary effects. This demarcation and clas- 
sification of trades caused many of the arts to 
become sure possessions for those who adopted 
them. Hence fathers aimed at transmitting 
their trade to their sons ; and thus was formed 
an indestructible mass of national industry, 
which made labor honorable, by implanting 
steady and homogeneous manners, if we may 
so speak, in the bosom of the class of artisans. 

" Another circumstance contributed still 
more to render the exercise of the mechanical 
arts honorable at Barcelona, not only more 
than in most other parts of Spain, but more 
than in any other state, ancient or modern. 
This was the admission of the trades-cor- 
porations upon the register of municipal offices 
in this city, which enjoyed so many royal 
grants and extraordinary privileges of inde- 
pendence. Thus the nobility — that Gothic 
nobility — with their great domains, sought to 
be incorporated with the operatives in the 
Ayuntamiento, there to fill the offices and su- 
preme stations in the political government, 
whicb, during more tban five hundred years, 
continued in Barcelona under a form and in a 
spirit truly democratic- All mechanical offices, 
without any odious distinction or exclusion, 
were held worthy to be declared qualified for 
the consistorial council of magistrates ; all had 
a voice and a vote among the conscript fathers 
who represented this city, the most highly 
privileged perhaps that ever existed; one of 
the most renowned for its laws, its power, and 
its influence ; one of the most respected in the 
middle ages amongst all the states and mon- 
archies of Europe, Asia, and Africa. f 

** This political system, and this municipal 
form of government, resembled that which 
prevailed in the middle ages amongst all the 
principal towns of Italy, whence Catalonia 
borrowed many of its customs and usages. 
Genoa, Pisa, Milan, Pavia, Florence, Sienna, 
and other towns, had a municipal government 
composed of the leading men in commerce, 
and the arts, under the name of consuls, coun- 
sellors, <fec. Priores Artium — such was the 
name of a popular form of elective govern- 
ment, distributed among the different classes 
of citizens, without excluding the artisans, 
who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
were in their most flourishing condition, form- 
ing the most respectable part of the population, 
and consequently the richest, the most power- 
ful, and the most independent. This demo- 
cratic liberty, besides giving stability and 
permanency to industry in the towns of Italy, 
conferred a singular degree of honor on the 
mechanical professions. The grand council of 
these towns was summoned by the tolling of 
the bell, when the artisans arranged themselves 

* "Consult the Appendix of Notes, Nos. 28 and 30. 
You will there see what respect and power the town 
of Barcelona enjoyed at another period, by means of 
the municipal magistrates, who represented it under 
the ordinary name of councillors." 

t " In the diplomatic collection of these memoirs, 
we find a multitude of lettprs and other documents 
proving the direct and mutual relations which exist- 
ed between the city of Barcelona and the emperors 
of the East, of Germany, the sultans of Egypt, the 
kings of Tunis, of Morocco, and various monarchs 
and" states, or other great powers of Europe." 



under the banners or gonfalons of their respec- 
tive trades. Such was also the political con- 
stitution of Barcelona from the middle of the 
thirteenth to the commencement of the pre- 
sent century. With these facts before us, need 
we feel surprise that, in our own days, arts 
and artisans in Barcelona still retain undimi- 
nished esteem and consideration ; that a love 
for mechanical professions has become here- 
ditary ; that the dignity and self-respect of the 
artisan class have become traditional, even to 
the last generations, in which the customs of 
their ancestors have been transmitted by the 
succession of example, even after the extinc- 
tion of the political reasons in which these 
customs had their origin ? Several trades-cor- 
porations still preserve in the halls of their 
juntas the portraits of those of their members 
who formerly obtained the first employments 
in the state. Must not this laudable practice 
have engraven on the memory of the members 
of the corporation all the ideas of honor and 
dignity consistent with the condition of an 
artisan ? Assuredly the popular form of the 
ancient government of Barcelona could not^ail 
to imprint itself generally and forcibly on the 
manners of the people ; indeed, where all the 
citizens were equal in the participation of 
honors, it is easy to see that no one would 
willingly remain inferior to another in virtue 
or in merit, although inferior, in other respects, 
by his condition and fortune. This noble emu- 
lation, which must naturally have been awak- 
ened to activity in the concourse of all orders 
in the state, gave birth to the dignity, the lofty 
and inviolate probity of the artisans of Barce- 
lona ; and this character they have maintained 
to our own times, to the admiration of Spain 
and of foreign nations. Such has been the 
negligence of our national authors, that this 
narrative will have the appearance of a disco- 
very : up to the present time Barcelona and 
the Principality had not attracted the scruti- 
nizing notice of the political historian, so that 
a dark shadow still concealed the real princi- 
ples (always unknown to the crowd) from which 
in all times, have sprung the virtues and the 
vices of nations. 

" To these causes may be attributed, in great 
part, the esteem which the artisans have ac- 
quired. Nothing could be more salutary than 
this obligation they were always under of com- 
porting themselves with dignity and distinction 
in public employments, whether in the corpo- 
ration or the municipal government. Moreover 
the constant example of the master of the 
house, who, up to the present time, has always 
lived in common with his apprentices in a 
praiseworthy manner, has confirmed the chil- 
dren in ideas of order and dignity; for the 
manners and habits of a people, which are as 
powerful as law, must be inculcated from the 
tenderest age. Thus, in Barcelona, the opera- 
tive has never been confounded by the sloven- 
liness of his dress with the mendicant, whose 
idle and dissipated habits, says an illustrious 
writer, are easily contracted when the dress of 
the man of respectability is in no way distin- 
guished from that of the rabble. Nor are the 
laboring population ever seen wearing those 
cumbersome garments which, serving as a 
cover for rags and a cloak for idleness, cramp 
the movements and activity of the body, and 



480 



NOTES. 



invite to a life of indolent ease. The people 
have not contracted a habit of frequenting ta- 
verns, where example leads to drunkenness 
and moral disorders. Their amusements, so 
necessary for working people to render their 
daily toils supportable, have always been in- 
nocent recreations, which either afforded them 
repose from their fatigues or varied them. The 
games formerly permitted were either the ring 
(la bague), nine pins, bowls, ball, shooting at 
a mark, fencing, and public dancing, authoriz- 
ed and watched over by the authorities ; an 
amusement which from time immemorial has 
been general amongst the Catalans, in certain 
seasons and on certain festivals of the year. 

" The respect for the artisan of Barcelona 
has never been diminished on account of the 
material on which his art was exercised, whe- 
ther it was silver, steel, iron, copper, wood, or 
wool. We have seen that all the trades were 
equally eligible to the municipal offices of the 
state ; none were excluded — not even butchers. 
Ancient Barcelona did not commit the political 
error of establishing preferences that might 
ha^e produced some odious distinctions of 
trades. The inhabitants considered that all 
the citizens were in themselves worthy of 
esteem, since all contributed to the growth and 
maintenance of the property of a capital whose 
opulence and power were founded upon the 
industry of the artisan and the merchant. In 
fact, Barcelona has ever been free from that 
idea, so generally entertained, that every me- 
chanical profession is low and vulgar — a mis- 
chievous and very common prejudice, which, 
in the provinces of Spain, has made an irre- 
parable breach in the progress of the arts. 
At Barcelona, admission into certain trades- 
corporations has never been refused to the 
members of other trades : in this city all the 
trades are held in the same estimation. In a 
word, neither Barcelona nor any other town in 
Catalonia has ever entertained those vulgar 
prejudices that are enough to prevent honor- 
able men from devoting themselves to the arts, 
or to cause the son to forsake the art practised 
by the father."* 

Note 36, p. 361. 
I have spoken of the numerous Councils 
held by the Church at different epochs ; why, 
it will be asked, does she not hold them more 
frequently now ? I will answer this question 
by quoting a judicious passage from Count de 
Maistre, in his work On the Pope, book i. chap. 
2:— 

" In the first ages of Christianity," says he, 
"it was more easy to assemble Councils, be- 
cause the Church was not so numerous as now, 
and because the emperors possessed powers 
that enabled a sufficient number of Bishops to 
assemble, so that their decisions needed only 
the assent of other Bishops. Yet these Coun- 
cils were not assembled without much difficulty 
and embarrassment. But in modern times, 
since the civilized world has been divided into 
so many sovereignties, and immeasurably in- 
creased by our intrepid navigators, an (Ecu- 
menical Council has become a chimera."]" Sim- 

* See the remarks of his Excellency M. Campo- 
manes on these abuses and false principles of policy, 
in his Discourse on the Popular Education of Arti- 
sans, from page 119 to 160. 

| We ordinarily call a chimera, or an impossibi- 



ply to convoke all the Bishops, and to bring 
legally together such a convocation, five or six 
years would not suffice." 

Note 37, p. 369. 

That my readers may be convinced of the 
truth and accuracy of what I here affirm, I 
invite them to read the history of the heresies 
that have afflicted the Church since the first 
ages, but particularly from the tenth century 
down to our own days. 

Note 38, p. 373. 

It was not, I have said, without prejudice to 
the liberty of the people that the influence of 
the clergy was withdrawn from the working of 
the political machine. In order to ascertain 
how far this is true, it may be well to remark, 
that a great number of theologians were fa- 
vorable to tolerably liberal doctrines in politi- 
cal matters, and that it was the clergy who ex- 
ercised the greatest freedom in speaking to 
kings, even after the people had almost en- 
tirely lost the right of intervention in political 
affairs. Observe what opinions St. Thomas 
held on forms of government. 

(Quest, cv. 1» 2*.) 

De ratione judicialium proeceptorum art. 1. 
Respondeo dicendum, quod circa bonam ordi- 
nationem principum in aliqua civitate, vel 
gente, duo sunt attendenda, quorum unum est, 
ut omnes aliquam partem habeant in princi- 
patu ; per hoc enim conservatur pax populi et 
omnes talem ordinationem amant et custodiunt 
ut dicitur (II. Polit., cap. i.) ,• aliud est quod 
attenditur secundum speciem regiminis vel 
ordinationis principatum, cujus cum sint diver- 
sas species, ut philosophus tradit in III. Polit. 
cap. v., praecipue tamen unum regimen est, in 
quo unus principatur secundum virtutem: et 
aristocratia, id est potestas optimorum, in qua 
aliqui pauci principantur secundum virtutem. 
Unde optima ordinatio principum est in aliqua 
civitate vel regno, in quo unus prceficitur 
secundum virtutem qui omnibus proesit et sub 
ipso sunt aliqui principantes secundum virtu- 
tem, et tamen talis principatus ad omnes per- 
tinet, turn quia ex omnibus eligi possunt, turn 
quia etiam ab omnibus eliguntur. Talis vero 
est omnis politia bene commixta ex regno in 
quantam unus praaest, et aristocratia in quan- 
tum multi principantur secundum virtutem, et 
ex democratia, id est potestate populi in quan- 
tum ex popularibus possunt eligi principes, et 
ad populum pertinet electio principum, et hoc 
fuit institutum secundum legem divinam. 
Divus Thomas. (l a 2* Q. 90, art. 4°) 

Et sic ex quatuor praedictis potest colligi 
definitio legis quae nihil est aliud quam quaa- 
dam rationis ordinatio ad bonum commune ab 
eo qui curam communitatis habet promulgata. 
Q. 95, art. 4. 

lity, that which offers great difficulties. On this oc- 
casion we cannot help observing to sincere persons, 
that, from these great difficulties, they may judge of 
the lawfulness and sincerity of the desires manifest- 
ed by the soi-disant reformers and appellants to Coun- 
cils. They do not wish for Councils; but, under the 
shadow of this word, they wish to escape the autho- 
rity of their legitimate superiors. (Note by the au- 
thors of the Bibliotheque de Religion, published in 
Spain.) 



NOTES. 



481 



Tertio est de ratione legis humanae ut insti- 
tuatur a gubernante communitatem civitatis : 
sicut supra dictum est. (Quest. 90, art. 3.) Et 
secundum hoc distinguuntur leges humanae 
secundum diversa regimina civitatum, quorum 
unum, secundum philosophum in III. Polit., 
cap. xi., est regnuin, quando scilicet civitas gu- 
bernatur ab uno, et secundum hoc accipiuntur 
constitutiones principum ; aliud vero regimen 
est aristocratia, id est principatus optimorura 
vel optimatum, et secundum hoc sumuntur re- 
eponsa prudentum et etiam senatusconsulta. 
Aliud regimen est oligarchia, id est principatus 
paucorum divitum et potentum ; et secundum 
hoc sumitur jus praetorium, quod etiam honora- 
rium dicitur. Aliud autem regimen est populi, 
quod nominatur democratia; et secundum hoc 
sumuntur plebiscita. Aliud autem est tyranni- 
cum, quod est omnino corruptum unde ex hoc 
non sumitur aliqua lex. Est etiam et aliquod 
regimen ex istis commixtum, quod est opti- 
mum, ct secundum hoc sumitur lex quam 
majores natu simul cum plebibus sanxerunt, ut 
Isidorus dicit lib. 5, Etym. 0. cap. x. 

If certain declaimers are to be believed, it 
would seem that the principle, that it is the law 
which governs, and not the will of man, is 
quite a recent discovery. But observe with 
what solidity and perspicuity the angelic doctor 
expounds this doctrine. 

(1» 2» Q. 93, art. 1.) 

Utrum fuerit utile aliquas leges poni ab ho- 
minibus. 

Ad 2 m dicendum, quod sicut Philosophus 
dicit. 1. Rhetor. Melius est omnia ordinari 
lege, quam dimittere judicum arbitrio, et hoc 
propter tria. Primo quidem, quia facilius est 
invenire paucos sapientes, qui sufficiant ad rec- 
tas leges ponendas, quam multos ; qui require- 
rentur ad recte judicandum de singulis. Se- 
cundo, quia illi qui leges ponunt, ex multo 
tempore considerant quid lege ferendum sit: 
sed judicia de singularibus factis fiunt ex casi- 
bus subito exortis. Facilius autem ex multis 
consideratis potest homo videre quid rectum 
sit, quam solum ex aliquo uno facto. Tertio, 
quia legislatores judicant in universali, et de 
futuris : sed homines judiciis praesidentes judi- 
cant de praasentibus ; ad quae afficientur amore 
vel odio, aut aliqua cupiditate; et sic eorum 
depravatur judicium. Quia ergo justitia ani- 
mata judicis non invenitur in multis, et quia 
flexibilis est : ideo necessarium fuit in quibus- 
cumque est possibile, legem determinare quid 
judicandum sit, etpaucissima arbitrio hbminum 
committere. 

In Spain, the Procuradores of the Cortes 
dared not raise their voices against the excesses 
of power,- and their timidity drew down the 
keen reproaches of P. Mariana. In the exami- 
nation to which he was subjected in the cele- 
brated suit commenced against him on the 
subject of the seven treatises, he confesses 
having applied to the Procuradores the epithets 
of vile, superficial, and utterly venal, only 
striving to obtain the favor of the prince, and 
their own particular interests, without solici- 
tude for the public good. He added, that such 
was the public cry, the general complaint, at 
least at Toledo, where he was residing. 

I will leave unnoticed his work intituled Be 
Rege et Regis imtitutione, of which I have 
61 2 



spoken elsewhere. Confining myself to his 
History of Spain, I will observe with what 
liberty he expresses himself on the most deli- 
cate points, without meeting with any opposi- 
tion, either from the civil or from the ecclesi- 
astical authority. In his 1st book, chap. 4, 
speaking of the Aragonese, in his usual grave 
and severe tone, he says: "The Aragonese 
possess and enjoy laws and fueros very differ- 
ent from those of the other people of Spain; 
they possess every thing most adapted for pre- 
serving liberty against the excessive power 
of kings, for preventing this power from de- 
generating and changing, by its natural ten- 
dency, into tyranny ; for they are not ignorant 
of this truth, that the right of liberty is gene- 
rally lost by degrees." 

It was precisely at this epoch that the clergy 
expressed themselves with the greatest freedom 
on the most delicate of all subjects, that of con- 
tributions. The venerable Palafox, in his me- 
morial or petition to the king for ecclesiastical 
immunity, said : " According to St. Augustine, 
to the great Tostat, and other weighty authors, 
the Son of God appointed that the children of 
God — that is the ministers of the Church, his 
priests — should not pay tribute to the pagan 
princes. In fact, he addressed to St. Peter the 
following question, already resolved by the eter- 
nal wisdom of the Father: Reges gentium a 
quibus accipiunt tributum, a Jiliis, anab alienis ? 
St. Peter answered, Ab alienis ; and our Lord 
concluded with these words : Ergo liberi sunt 
filii. I may be allowed, sire, to make this 
delicate observation, that the Divine Majesty 
does not say, Reges gentium a quibus capiunt 
tributum, but a quibus accipiunt. By this word 
accipiunt, we understand the mildness and 
mansuetude with which the payment of a tri- 
bute should always be exacted, in order to di- 
minish the bitterness and repugnance accom- 
panying a tribute. 

" 46. It is doubtless useful for the preserva- 
tion of the state, that, in the first place, subjects 
should give, in order that princes may then 
receive. It is proper that kings should receive, 
and employ the tribute paid them, for on this 
depends the safety of crowns ,• but it is well that 
subjects should first give it voluntarily. It is 
doubtless from this passage of Scripture, from 
this expression of the Eternal Word, that the 
Catholic Crown, always so pious, has received 
the holy doctrine, by virtue of which neither 
your majesty nor your illustrious predecessors 
have ever permitted a tribute to be levied 
without its having first received the consent of 
the kingdoms themselves, and been offered by 
them; and your majesty is incomparably more 
exalted by limiting and moderating your power, 
than by exercising it to its utmost extent. 

"47. Sire, if laymen, who have no exemption 
in matters of tribute, enjoy that which the 
kindness of your majesty and of the most 
Catholic kings grant them; if they do not pay 
till they choose to make a voluntary offering ; 
if nothing is received from them except on this 
condition, will religion, your majesty's re- 
nowned piety, and the devoted zeal of the 
Council, allow the clergy — the sons, the min- 
isters of God, the privileged, those who are 
exempt by divine and human law in all the 
nations of the world, and among the very- 
pagans — to enjoy less favor than strangers, 
Q 



482 



NOTES. 



who are not, like them, either ministers of the 
Church or priests of God ? Is the word capiunt, 
sire, to be applied exclusively to the ministers 
of God, and the word accipiunt to men of the 
world ?" 

In his work intituled Historia Real Sagrada, 
the same writer raises his voice against tyranny 
with extreme severity : 

" 12. Such," says he, "is the law which the 
king whom you tcish for xcill maintain in your 
regard. The word law is here employed ironi- 
cally, as if God should say: 'You imagine, 
without doubt, that this king of yours would 
govern according to law; on this supposition 
you asked for him, since you complained that 
my tribunal did not govern you. Now, the 
law which this king will exercise towards you 
will be, to disregard all law ; and his law will 
eventually be tyranny respected.' The politi- 
cian who, relying upon this passage, should 
attribute as a right to the monarch a power 
which is merely pointed out by God to the 
people as a chastisement, would be an uncivil- 
ized being, unworthy of being treated as a 
rational creature. The Lord, in this instance, 
does not define what is the best; he does not 
say what he is giving them ; these words are 
no appreciation of power ; he merely declares 
what would be the case, and what he condemns. 
Who shall dare to found the origin of tyranny 
on justice itself? God says, that he whom 
they desire for a king will be a tyrant — not a 
tyrant approved of by him, but a tyrant that he 
reprobates and chastises. And subsequent 
events clearly shewed it, since there were in 
Israel wicked kings, by whom the prophecy 
was fulfilled, and Saints who obtained on the 
throne the mercy of God. The wicked kings 
literally accomplished the divine threat, by 
doing what they were forbidden ; the good ones 
established their dignity upon propriety and 
justice within prescribed limits." 

Father Marquez, in his Christian Prince or 
Magistrate (Gobernador Gristiano), also en- 
larges on the same question ; he expounds his 
opinion both theoretically and practically. 

(Chapter xvi. 53.) 

"Thus far we have heard the words of Philo, 
writing on this event. As these words afforded 
me an opportunity of reasoning on the obliga- 
tions of Christian kings, I have taken care to 
quote them at length. I will not expect these 
kings to act like Moses ; for they have not the 
miraculous aid which the Hebrew legislator re- 
ceived for the relief of the people, nor the rod 
which God gave him to make water flow from 
the rock at need. But I will recommend them 
to reflect maturely on the additional services 
they shall attempt to exact from their subjects, 
and the burdens they shall impose on them. 
Let them reflect that they are bound to justify 
the motive of their request in all truth, and 
without any false coloring; always and con- 
stantly aware that they are in the presence of 
God, that the eyes of God are fixed on their 
hands, that He will require from them a strict 
account of their actions. For, as the holy 
doctor of Nazianzen says, the Son of God came 
designedly into the world at the taking of a 
census and a resettlement of the imposts, in 
order to confound kings who would have ap- 
pointed them through caprice; so that kings 



may now know that the Son of God takes 
account of every item, and weighs in the bal- 
ance of his strict justice things which we 
should account of little moment. 

"The above reflection will serve to dispel the 
false ideas of certain flatterers, who, to obtain 
the favor of princes, persuade them that they 
are perfectly independent and the masters of 
the lives and property of their subjects, free to 
dispose of them as they may think proper. In 
support of this pretended maxim, they allege, 
as we have seen, the history of Samuel, who 
answered the people on the part of God, when 
they were demanding a king, 'You shall have 
one, but on terrible conditions.' This king was 
to take from them their fields, their vineyards, 
their oliveyards, to give them to his servants; 
he was to take their daughters for slaves, < to 
make him ointments, and to be his cooks and 
bakers.' And they have not observed that, as 
John Bodin says, this is the interpretation of 
Philip Melanethon, which alone is sufficient to 
render it suspicious. Moreover, as St. Gregory, 
and after him other doctors, have observed, 
this passage of Scripture does not establish the 
just right of kings, but rather announces be- 
forehand the tyranny of a great number of 
princes; in fine, these words do not explain 
what good princes might do, but merely what 
bad ones would usually do. Hence, when 
Achab seized upon the vineyard of Naboth, 
God was angry with him, and we know how 
He treated him. When David, the elect of 
God, demanded a spot whereon to set up the 
altar of Jebusee, he only asked it on condition 
of paying the value of the land. 

"For this reason princes should examine 
with scrupulous attention whether contribu- 
tions are just; for if they are not, doctors 
decide that they cannot, without manifest in- 
justice, thus more or less infringe on the rights 
of their subjects. This doctrine is so Catholic 
and certain, that men holding sound doctrine 
affirm that, in this case, princes cannot impose 
fresh tributes, even though necessary, without 
the consent of the nation. For, say they, the 
prince not being (which he certainly is not) 
the master of his subjects' property, cannot 
make use of it without the consent of those 
from whom he is to receive it. This custom 
has been long in practice in the kingdom of 
Castile, where the laws of royalty prohibit the 
levying of any new impost without the inter- 
vention of the Cortes : after having received 
the sanction of the Cortes, the impost is sub- 
mitted to the vote of the towns; and the prince 
does not consider his demand granted till it 
has received the sanction of the majority of the 
towns. Edward I. of England made a similar 
law, according to many authors of weight; and 
Philip of Commines says, that it was the same 
in France till the time of Charles VII., who, 
urged by an extreme necessity, suppressed 
these formalities, and levied a tax without 
waiting for the consent of the States, and this 
inflicted on the kingdom so deep a wound, that 
it will long continue unhealed. If we may 
credit certain affirmations, this author reports, 
that it was then asserted that the king had 
escaped from the guardianship exercised by the 
kingdom ; but that his own opinion is, that 
kings cannot, without the consent of their peo- 
ple, exact a single farthing; princes acting 



NOTES. 



483 



otherwise, says he, fall under the Pope's ex- 
communication ; no doubt that of the bull In 
Coena Domini. For my own part, I ought to 
confess that I do not find this in Philip de 

Commines With respect to this 

second point, it is evident, that the prince can- 
not, on his own authority, impose new tributes 
without the consent of the nation, whenever 
this nation shall have acquired by any of the 
reasons mentioned a contrary right, which I 
consider to be the case in Castile. No one, in 
fact, will deny that kingdoms at their com- 
mencement have a right to choose their kings 
on this condition, or render them such services 
as to obtain in return that no new imposts shall 
be laid on them without their consent. Now, 
in either case, there will be a compact made, 
from which kings cannot depart ; and it is of 
no consequence, as some imagine it to be, 
whether they have obtained their kingdoms 
through the election of their subjects, or by 
mere force of arms. Although it is probable, 
indeed, that a State yielding itself of its own 
accord, will obtain greater privileges and better 
conditions than those acquired by a just war, 
it would not, however, be impossible for a State, 
in choosing a king, to confer upon him all its 
power in an absolute manner, and without this 
restriction, with a view to lay him under greater 
obligations, and to testify to him a greater 
degree of devotedness ; and, on the other hand, 
a king, who had subjected a kingdom by force 
of arms, might nevertheless voluntarily grant 
it this privilege, with a view to obtain its 
gratitude, and more affectionate obedience on 
its part. The positive rule, therefore, for this 
particular right, will be the contract made, 
whether virtually or expressly, between the 
State and the prince; a contract which should be 
inviolable, especially if it is sealed by an oath." 

The Prince, or Christian Magistrate. 
(Liv. ii. ch. xxxix. § 2.) 

" Princes, it is said, may compel their sub- 
jects to sell at half-price, or to give gratui- 
tously, a part of their property. This opinion 
is generally founded on the law which ordains 
that, when a ship in a tempest has been saved 
by throwing overboard a part of the cargo, the 
proprietors of the remaining part are obliged to 
make a proportionate contribution to indemnify 
the sufferers for the loss they have sustained. 
Bartholus and other authors have inferred from 
this, that in a time of necessity and famine the 
monarch may require his subjects to give gratui- 
tously, and a fortiori to sell at a lower price, a 
portion of their property to those in need. The 
monarch, say they, might, without any doubt, 
render property common, as it was before the 
establishment of social rights ; he may conse- 
quently take it from one of his subjects and 
give it to another. 

" It is certainly said in the laws of the kings 
of Israel, that he who should be chosen by God 
might seize upon the vineyards and property 
of his subjects, to confer them on his own ser- 
vants ; but the doctors do not support their 
arguments on this text. In fact, as we have 
said in chapter 16th, book i., the question does 
not concern the rights of a good prince, but the 
tyrannical acts of a bad one. Now, a careful 
study of the Scriptures will shew, that this 



passage must be favourable to one or other of 
the two opinions ; for, if it were intended to 
establish that kings would possess in conscience 
the authority set forth in this passage, they 
would certainly have the right of seizing the 
property of one of their subjects to give it to 
another. If this passage is merely meant as a 
declaration of the injustices, of the extortions, 
and the tyrannies of wicked monarchs, it is no 
less certain that in Scripture the deed is con- 
sidered unjust ; for this deed is alleged as an 
example of what tyrants would do; now if it 
had been permitted to a good king, it would not 
have been quoted as an example of tyranny, as 
the Scriptures suppose it. 

" Thus, this text alone, even were there no 
other in support of this doctrine, would satisfy 
me, that kings cannot lawfully compel their 
subjects to relinquish their property for less 
than its value, not even under pretext of the 
public good. In fact, were this pretext valid, 
it would not have been difficult for the kings 
of Israel to find an excuse for their tyranny ; 
they might have alleged, that it was important 
to the public good to reward servants whose 
fidelity was so advantageous to the interests of 
the kingdom. Further, King Achab might 
have urged, that the amusements of the prince 
formed a part of the public good, since the 
people are so much interested in the health of 
the prince ; and under this pretext might have 
deprived Naboth of his vineyard in order to 
enlarge his gardens. We find, however, that 
this pretext did not justify him in compelling 
Naboth even to sell his vineyard; the king, 
although grieved, was not offended by this 
man's refusal, neither was it his intention to 
seize the vineyard, had not the impious Jezabel 
furnished him with the means of doing so. 

"Reason is evidently in favour of this opi- 
nion. Kings are the ministers of justice, and 
have been appointed to administer and uphold 
justice among the people. As St. Thomas 
teaches, the contract in buying and selling is 
only just in proportion as the price is equiva- 
lent to the thing purchased. Public, it is true, 
should be preferred to individual interest; in 
case, therefore, that a State is in danger of 
dissolution, the monarch might demand pro- 
perty at a less price, or even for nothing, just 
as he might compel the citizen to expose his 
life, which is of still greater value, in defending 
the common cause in a just war. This case, 
however, as P. Molina observes, is impossible, 
since the monarch would always be able to 
indemnify the individual for the loss he sus- 
tained, by levying for this purpose a general 
tax, a just tribute, and one that the State would 
be bound to pay. To prove this still more 
clearly, let us imagine the most urgent case 
possible ; let us suppose that the king is be- 
sieged in his capital by a tyrant; the tyrant 
is about to enter sword and torch in hand ; he 
offers to raise the siege on condition of receiv- 
ing a statue of gold of great value, formerly 
the property of his ancestors, which a subject 
of the besieged king, the commander-in-chief 
of his armies, had taken in the plunder of a 
town, and made the inalienable property of the 
eldest son of his family. To render the case 
still more pressing, lot us suppose that the 
tyrant has a dearly-cherished relation in the 
service of the besieged king, and that he will 



484 



NOTES. 



be satisfied if a rich lord of the kingdom, 
possessing a great number of estates, be de- 
spoiled, and his property conferred on his 
relation. It cannot be doubted that, in order 
to purchase the lives of all, this arrangement 
might be entered into; and that the king 
would be justified in acceding to the demand, 
in taking the statue, or even the whole of this 
property, to confer it on the tyrant's relation. 
But no one will assert that the lord should 
suffer the whole loss. The State would be 
under the obligation of indemnifying him for 
the loss, by taking upon itself the indemnifi- 
cation, the lord merely contributing his quota ; 
for this reason, that it would be opposed to 
natural justice for the burdens of the whole body 
to fall upon a single member, which would be 
the case according to the law proposed by the 
opponents. If, in a case of shipwreck, all the 
cargo were thrown overboard to save the ship 
and the lives and fortunes of all, the obligation 
being common to all, it would not be just that 
it should fall exclusively upon the owners ; 
because the cargo could best be thrown over- 
board and most endangered the ship's safety : 
the loss should be borne by all, even by those 
whohad with them things only of little weight, as 
jewels or diamonds, for instance ; since neither 
these latter proprietors nor the vessel herself 
could be saved without lightening her by 
throwing overboard the heavier portion of the 
cargo. 

" The law decrees also that the owner of the 
vessel shall pay his quota. Not that he is ob- 
liged to indemnify the owners of the merchan- 
dise lost, because he sees them in need; it 
may be supposed, indeed, that these parties are 
rich, and, although their present loss is extreme, 
they will nevertheless be under the obligation 
of returning what would then have been lent 
to them j for, as the doctors decide, there is no 
obligation of giving to the rich man when he 
suffers a heavy loss, when a loan will answer 
the same end. But it is said that the obliga- 
tion of the master of a ship is founded on the 
fact, that all the passengers and the proprietors 
being interested in saving their lives and their 
property, the risk and the loss of what was 
thrown overboard ought to fall on all, and not 
exclusively on the owners of what was lost. As 
a proof that this is the correct interpretation, it 
will be sufficient to notice the summary of the 
title, and the very words of the law, which are : 
Eo quod id tributum servatce mercedes deberent. 

" But, except in this case, or in others equally 
pressing, if the ruin of the State would not 
result from the mere fact of an individual 
refusing to yield up his house to the prince, 
the latter could not compel the proprietor to 
give it up for a less price than its just value, 
and still less for nothing ; for so long as the 
persons and the property of the State are safe, 
it is of no importance to the body corporate 
whether such or such persons are rich or poor ; 
no one, in fact, in the general community pos- 
sesses a fixed degree from which he can neither 
descend nor rise. This instability observable 
among the members of the same State, some 
losing what others gain, and vice versa, is in- 
separable from the state of society, such is the 
instability of temporal affairs ; and the public 
good, generally speaking, neither loses nor 
gains by it." 



Note 39, p. 382. 

Some persons imagine, that in speaking of 
the loss of liberty in Spain, the question may 
be readily reduced to one point of view, as if 
the kingdom had always possessed the unity 
which it only acquired in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, and only then in an incomplete manner. 
A perusal of history, and especially of the 
codes of the different provinces of which the 
monarchy was composed, will convince us that 
the central power has been created and fortified 
among us very slowly; and that at the time 
when this difficult task was nearly accomplished 
in Castile, much still remained to be done in 
Aragon and Catalonia. Our constitutions, our 
customs, our manners, in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, evidently prove that the monarchy of 
Philip II., such as we conceive it, strong and 
irresistible, was not yet established in the 
crown of Aragon. I will abstain from adducing 
here documents and quoting facts with which 
every one is acquainted; the dimensions of 
this volume require me to be brief. 

Note 40, p. 388. 

The immortal work of Count de Maistre, in 
which he so ably refutes the calumnies of the 
enemies of the Apostolic See, is well known. 
Among so many and such profound observa- 
tions, there is one deserving of particular atten- 
tion : that on the moderation of the Popes in 
every thing relating to the extension of their 
dominions, when he points out the difference 
between the Roman and the other European 
Courts. "It is," says he, "a very remarkable 
circumstance, but either disregarded or not 
sufficiently attended to, that the Popes have 
never taken advantage of the great power in 
their possession for the aggrandisement of their 
States. What could have been more natural, 
for instance, or more tempting to human na- 
ture, than to reserve a portion of the provinces 
conquered from the Saracens, and which they 
gave up to the first occupant, to repel the 
Turkish ascendency, always on the increase? 
But this, however, they never did, not even 
with regard to the adjacent countries, as in the 
instance of the Two Sicilies, to which they had 
incontestable rights, at least according to the 
ideas then prevailing, and over which they 
were nevertheless contented with an empty 
sovereignty, which soon ended in the ho.quenee, 
a slight tribute, and merely nominal, which 
the bad taste of the age still disputes with 
them. 

" The Popes may have made too much, at the 
time, of this universal sovereignty, which an 
opinion equally universal allowed them. They 
may have exacted homage ; may indeed, if you 
will, have too arbitrarily imposed taxes. I do 
not wish to enter into these points here, but it 
still remains certain that they have never 
sought to increase their dominions at the ex- 
pense of justice, whilst all other governments 
fell under this anathema; and, at the present 
time even, with all our philosophy, our civili- 
zation, and our fine books, there is not perhaps 
one of the European powers in a condition to 
justify all its possessions before God and rea- 
son." (Du Pape, book ii. chap. 6.) 



NOTES. 



485 



Note 41, p. 350. 

I will here insert some passages in which St. 
Anselm explains the motives that induced him 
to write, and the method which he intended to 
follow in his writings. 

Prcefatio beati Anselmi Episcopi Cantuariensis 
in Monologuium. 

Quidam fratres saepe me studioseque precati 
sunt, ut quaedam de illis, quae de meditanda di- 
vinitatis essentia, et quibusdam aliis hujus 
meditationi cohaerentibus, usitato sermone col- 
loquendo protuleram, sub quodam eis medita- 
tionis exemplo describerem. Cujus scilicet 
scribendaa meditationis magis secundum suam 
voluntatem quam secundum rei facilitatem aut 
meam possibilitatem hanc mihi formam pras- 
stituerunt : quatenus auctoritate scripturas peni- 
tus nihil in ea persuaderetur. Sed quidquid 
per singulas investigationes finis assereret, id 
ita esse piano stylo et vulgaribus argumentis 
simplicique disputatione, et rationis necessitas 
breviter cogeret, et veritatis claritas patenter 
ostenderet. Voluerunt etiam ut nec simplicibus 
peneque fatuis objectionibus inihi occurrentibus 
obviare contemnerem, quod quidem diu tentare 
recusavi, atque me cum re ipsa comparans, 
niultis me rationibus excusare tentavi. Quanto 
enim id quod petebant, usu sibi optabant faci- 
lius : tanto mihi illud actu injungebant diffici- 
lius. Tandem tamen victus, turn precum 
modesta importunitate, turn studii eorum non 
contemnenda honestate, invitus quidem propter 
rei difficultatem, et ingenii mei imbecillitatem, 
quod precabantur incaepi, sed libenter propter 
eorum caritatem, quantum potui secundum 
ipsorum definition em eft'eci. Ad quod cum ea 
spe sim adductus, ut quidquid facerem illis 
solis a quibus exigebatur, esset notum, et paulo 
post idipsum ut vilem rem fastidientibus, con- 
temptu esset obruendum, scio enim me in eo 
non tam precantibus satisfacere potuisse, quam 
precibus me prosequentibus finem posuisse. 
Nescio tamen quomodo sic praeter spem evenit, 
ut non solum praadicti fratres sed et plures alii 
scripturam ipsam, quisque earn sibi transcri- 
bendo in longum memoriae commendare sata- 
gerent, quam ego saepe tractans nihil potui 
invenire me in ea dixisse, quod non catholi- 
corum patrum, et maxime beati Augustini 
scriptis cohaereat. 

Idem. Quod hoc licet inexplicabile sit, tamen 
credendum sit. (Cap. lxii.) 

Videtur mihi hujus tam sublimis rei secretum 
transcendere omnem intellectus aciem humani : 
et iclcirco conatum explicandi qualiter hoc sit, 
continendum puto. Sufficere namque debere 
existimo rem incomprehensibilem indaganti si 
ad hoc rationando pervenerit, ut earn certissime 
esse cognoscat, etiamsi penetrare nequeat intel- 
lect quomodo ita sit, nec idcirco minus his ad- 
hibendam fidei certitudinem, quse probationibus 
necessariis nulla alia repugnante ratione asse- 
runtur, si suae naturalis altitudinis incompre- 
hensibilitate explicari non patiantur. Quid 
autem tam incomprehensibile, quam id quod 
supra omnia est? Quapropter si ea quae de 
sua essentia hactenus disputata sunt necessariis 

2Q 



rationibus sunt asserta, quamvis sic intellectu 
penetrari non possint ut quae verbis valeant 
explicari : nullatenus tamen certitudinis eorum 
nutat soliditas. Nam si superior consideratio 
rationabiliter comprehendit incomprehensibile 
esse, quomodo eadem summa sapientia sciat ea 
quae fecit de quibus tam multa non scire ne- 
cesse est; quis explicet quomodo sciat aut 
dicat se ipsam, de qua aut nihil, aut vix aliquid 
homini sciri possibile est? 

Incipit procemium in Prosologuion librum 
Anselmi, Abbatis Beccensis, et Archiepiscopi 
Cantuariensis. 

Postquam opusculum quoddam velut exem- 
plum meditandi de ratione fidei, cogentibus 
me precibus quorumdam fratrum in persona 
alicujus tacite secum ratiocinando quae nesciat 
investigantis edidi, considerans illud esse mul- 
torum concathenatione contextum argumen- 
torum, coepi mecum quaerere : si forte posset 
invenire unum argumentum, quod nullo alio ad 
se probandum, quam se solo indigeret, et solum 
ad astruendum quia Deus vere est; et quia est 
summum bonum nullo alio indigens, et quo 
omnia indigent ut sint et bene sint, et quae- 
cumque credimus de divina substantia suffi- 
ceret. Ad quod cum saepe studioseque cogita- 
tiones converterem, atque aliquando mihi 
videretur jam capi posse quod quaerebam, ali- 
quando mentis aciem omnino fugeret : tandem 
desperans volui cessare, velut ah inquisitione 
rei quam inveniri esset impossibile. Sed cum 
illam cogitationem, ne mentem meam frustra 
occupanclo ab aliis in quibus proficere possem 
impediret, penitus a me vellem excludere, tunc 
magis ac magis nolenti et defendenti, se coepit 
cum importunitate quadam ingerere. Quadam 
igitur die cum vehementer ejus importunitati 
resistendo fatigarer, in ipso cogitationum con- 
flictu sic se obtulit quod desperabam, ut stu- 
diose cogitationem amplecterer, quam sollicitus 
repellebam. iEstimans igitur quod me gaude- 
bam invenisse, si scriptum esset alicui, legenti 
placiturum. De hoc ipso et quibusdam aliis 
sub persona conantis erigere mentem suam ad 
contemplandum Deum, et quaerentis intelligere 
quod credit, subditum scripsi opusculum. Et 
quoniamnec istud nec illud cujus supra memini, 
dignum libri nomine, aut cui auctoris praepone- 
retur nomen judicabam: nec tamen sine aliquo 
titulo, quo aliquem in cujus manus venirent, 
quodammodo ad se legendum invitarent, dimit- 
tenda putabam, unicuique dedi titulum : ut 
prius exemplum meditandi de ratione fidei, et 
sequens fides quaerens intellectum diceretur. 
Sed cum jam a pluribus et his titulis utrumque 
transumptum esset, coegerunt me plures et 
maxime reverendus Archiepiscopus Lugdun- 
ensis Hugo nomine, fungens in Gallia legatione 
apostolica, proecepit auctoritate, ut nomen 
meum illis praescriberem. Quod ut aptius fieret 
illud quidem Monologuium, id est Soliloquium, 
istud vero Prosologuion, id est Alloquium 
nominavi. 

I have said that St. Anselm excelled Des- 
cartes in his manner of proving the existence 
of Grod : let the reader, indeed, peruse the fol- 
lowing passages. I do not, however, intend to 
pronounce an opinion on the merits of this 
demonstration; my business is, to notice the 
progress of the human mind, and not to resolvs 
philosophical questions. 
2 



486 



NOTES. 



PROSOLOGTTIUM D. ANSELMI. 

Quod Deus non possit cogitari non esse. 

Quod utique sic vere est, ut nec cogitari 
possit non esse. Nam potest cogitari esse 
aliquid, quod non possit cogitari non esse, quod 
majus est quam quod non esse cogitari potest. 
Quare si id, quo majus nequit cogitari, potest 
cogitari non esse : id ipsum, quo majus cogitari 
nequit, non est id quo majus cogitari nequit; 
quod convenire non potest. Sic ergo vere est 
aliquid, quo majus cogitari non potest, ut nec 
cogitari possit non esse. Bt hoc es tu, Domine 
Deus noster. Sic ergo vere es, Domine Deus 
meus, ut nec cogitari possis non esse. Et me- 
rito. Si enim aliqua mens posset cogitare ali- 
quid melius te, ascenderet creatura super Crea- 
torem ; et judicaret de Creatore, quod valde 
est absurdum. Et quidem qnidquid est aliud 
praeter solum te, potest cogitari non esse. 
Solus igitur verissime omnium, et ideo maxime 
omnium habes esse, quia quidquid aliud est 
non sic vere est, et idcirco minus habet esse. 
Cur itaque, dixit insipiens in corde suo von est 
Deus ? Cum causa in promptu sit rationali 
menti, te maxime omnium esse ? Cur, nisi 
stultus et insipiens ? 

Quomodo insipiens dixit in corde suo quod cogi- 
tari non potest. (Cap. iv.) 

Verum quomodo dixit insipiens in corde suo 
quod cogitare non potuit, aut quomodo cogitare 
non potuit quod dixit in corde, cum idem sit 
dicere in corde, et cogitare. Quod si vere, imo 
quia vere, et cogitavit : quia dixit in corde et 
non dixit in corde, quia cogitare non potuit; 
non uno tantum modo dicitur aliquid in corde 
vel cogitatur. Aliter enim cogitatur res, cum 
vox earn significans cogitatur : aliter cum 
idipsum, quod res est, intelligitur. Illo itaque 
modo, potest cogitari Deus non esse : isto vero, 
minime. Nullus quippe intelligens id quod 
Deus est, potest cogitare quia Deus non est; 
licet hsec verba dicat in corde, aut sine ulla, 
aut cum aliqua extranea significatione. Deus 
enim, est id quo majus cogitari non potest. 
Quod qui bene intelligit, utique intelligit id 
ipsum sic esse, ut nec cogitatione queat non 
esse. Qui ergo intelligit sic esse Deum, nequit 
eum non esse cogitare. Gratias tibi, bone 
Domine, gratias tibi, quia quod prius credidi 
te donante, jam sic intelligo te illuminante; 
ut si te esse nolim credere, non possim non 
intelligere. 

Ejusdem beati Ansehni liber pro insipiente 
incipit. 

Dubitanti, utrum sit; vel neganti quod sit 
aliqua talis natura, qua nihil majus cogitari 
possit; tamen esse illam, huic dicitur primo 
probari; quod ipse negans vel ambigens de 
ilia, jam habeat earn in intellectu, cum audiens 
illam dici, id quod dicitur intelligit : deinde, 
quia quod intelligit necesse est, ut non in solo 
intellectu, sed etiam in re sit. Et hoc ita pro- 
batur; quia majus est esse in intellectu et in 
re, quam in solo intellectu. Et si illud in solo 
est intellectu, majus illo erit quidquid etiam 
fuerit in re, at si majus omnibus, minus erit 
aliquo, et non erit majus omnibus quod utique 
repugnat. Et ideo necesse est ut, majus omni- 
bus, quod est jam probatum esse in intellectu, 



et in re sit; quoniam aliter majus omnibus esse 
non poterit. Responderi potest, quod hoc jam 
esse dicitur in intellectu meo, non ob aliud, 
nisi quia id quod dicitur intelligo. 

The passages I have just quoted will have 
shewn to my readers that thought was not op- 
pressed in the Catholic Church. The most 
eminent doctors were accustomed to reason on 
the most important subjects with a just and 
reasonable independence ; and although with 
profound respect for the teaching of the Catho- 
lic Church, they nevertheless surveyed, as well 
as Abelard and better, the field of true phi- 
losophy. We cannot expect from human in- 
telligence at this epoch more than is to be 
found in St. Anselm. How is it, therefore, 
that such eulogiums have been passed upon 
Roscelin and Abelard, without ever mentioning 
this holy doctor? Why present a picture of 
the intellectual movement so incomplete, and 
not insert in it so noble and beautiful a figure? 

If you would know how incorrect it is that 
Abelard, as M. Guizot affirms, abstained from 
attacking the doctrines of the Church — how in- 
correct M. Guizot is in his statement of the 
causes which excited the zeal of the pastors of 
the Church against Abelard, read the letter of 
the Bishops of Gaul to Pope Innocent, in which 
you will find a complete recital of the origin 
and cause of this important affair. Here is the 
letter : 

EPISTOLA CCCLXX. 

Reverendissimo Patri et Domino, Innocentio, 
Dei gratia summo Pontifici, Henricus Seno- 
nensium Archicpiscopus, Carnotensis Episco- 
pus, Sanctaz Sedis Apostolical famulus, Aure- 
lianensis, Antissiodorensis, Trecensis, Melden- 
8t8 Episcopi, devotas orationes et debitam 
obediential. 

Nulli dubium est quod ea qua? Apostolica fir- 
mantur auctoritate, rata semper existunt ; nec 
alicujus possunt deinceps mutilari cavillatione, 
vel invidia depravari. Ea propter ad vestram 
Apostolieam Sedein, Beatissime Pater, referre 
dignum censuimus qusedam quae nuper in nos- 
tra contigit tractari praesentia. Quae quoniam 
et nobis, et multis religiosis ac sapientibus viris 
rationabiliter acta visa sunt, vestrae serenitatis 
expectant comprobari judicio, simul et auctori- 
tate perpetuo roborari. Itaque cum per totam 
fere Galliam in civitatibus, vicis, et castellis, a 
Scholaribus non solum intra Scholas, sed etiam 
triviatim : nec a litteratis, aut provectis tantum, 
sed a pueris et simplicibus, aut certe stultis, de 
Sancta Trinitate, quae Deus est, disputaretur : 
insuper alia multa ab eisdem, absona prorsus et 
absurda, et plane fidei catholicae, sanctorumque 
Patrum auctoritatibus obviantia proferrentur ; 
cunique ab his qui sane sentiebant, et eas in- 
eptias rejiciendas esse censebant, saspius admo- 
niti corriperentur, vehementius convalescebant, 
et auctoritate magistri sui Petri Abailardi, et 
cujusdam ipsius libri, cui Theologioz indiderat 
nomen ; nec non et aliorum ejusdem opusculo- 
rum freti ad astruendas profanas adinventiones 
illas, non sine multarum anirnarum dispendio, 
sese magis ac magis armabant. Quae enim et 
nos, et alios plures non parum moverant ac 
leeserant; inde tamen qusestionem facere vere- 
bantur. 

Verum Dominus Abbas Clarae-vallis, his a di- 



NOTES. 



487 



versis et saapius auditis, immo certe in prae- 
taxato magistri Petri Theologice libro, nec non 
et aliis ejusdein libris, in quorum forte lectionem 
inciderat, diligenter inspeelis; secreto prius; 
ac deinde secum duobus aut tribus adhibitis 
testibus, juxta Evangelicuin praeceptuin, homi- 
nem convenit: Et ut auditores suos a talibus 
compeseeret, librosque suos corrigeret, aniicabi- 
liter satis ac familiariter ilium adnionuit. Plures 
etiam Seholariuui adhortatus est, ut et libros 
venenis plenos repudiarent et rejicerent: et a 
doctrina. qu« fidem laedebat Catholieam, cave- 
rent et abstinerent. Quod rnagister Petrus mi- 
nus patienter et nimium ajgre ferens, crebro nos 
pulsare coepit, nec ante voluit desistere, quoad 
Dominum Clara-vellensem Abbatem super hoc 
scribentes, assignato die, scilicet octavo Pente- 
costes, Senonis ante nostram submonuimus ve- 
nire prasentiani : quo se vocabat et offerebat 
para turn rnagister Petrus ad probandas et defen- 
dendas de quibus ilium Dominus Abbas Clara- 
vallensis, quomodo praetaxatum est, reprehende- 
rat senteutias. Caeteruui Dominus Abbas, nec 
ad assignatuin diem se venturum, nec contra 
Petrum sese disceptaturum nobis remandavit. 
Sed quia rnagister Petrus interim suos nihilo- 
minus coepit undequaque convocare discipulos; 
et obsecrare, ut ad futuram inter se, Dominum- 
que Abbatem Clara-vallensem disputationem, 
una cum illo suam sententiam siinul et seienti- 
am defensuri venirent: Et hoc Dominum Clara- 
vallensem minime lateret; veritus ipse, ne prop- 
ter occasionem absentia? suae tot profana?, non 
sentential sed insaniae, tarn apud minus intelli- 
gentes, quam earumdem defensores majore 
digna? viderenturauetoritate, praedicto quern sibi 
designaveramus die, licet eum minime suscep- 
isset, tactus zelo pii fervoris, imo certe Sancti 
Spiritus igne succensus, sese nobis ultro Senonis 
prajsentavit. Ilia vero die, scilicet octava Pente- 
costes, convenerant ad nos Senonis Fratres et 
Suffraganei nostri Episcopi, ob honorem et reve- 
rentiam sanctarum, quas in Ecclesia nostra po- 
pulo revelaturos nos indixeramus, Reliquiarum. 

Itaque praesente glorioso Rege Francorum 
Ludovico cum Wilhelmo religioso Nivernis Co- 
mite, Domino quoque Rheniensi Archiepiscopo, 
cum quibusdam suis suffraganeis Episcopis no- 
bis etiam, et suffraganeis nostris, exceptis Pa- 
risiis et Nivernis, Episcopis praesentibus, cum 
multis religiosis Abbatibus et sapientibus, val- 
deque litteratis clericis adfuit Dominus Abbas 
Clara- vallensis; adfuit rnagister Petrus cum 
fautoribus suis. Quid multa? Dominus Abbas 
cum librurn Theologiae magistri Petri proferret 
in medium, et quae annotaverat absurda, imo 
haaretica plane capitula de libro eodem propo- 
nent, ut ea rnagister Petrus vel a se scripta ne- 
garet, vel si sua fateretur, aut probaret, aut 
corrigeret: visus est dimdere rnagister Petrus 
Abailardus, et subterfugere, respondere noluit, 
sed quamvis libera sibi daretur audientia, tu- 
tumque locum, et aequos haberet judices, ad 
vestram tamen, sanctissime Pater, appellans 
praasentiain, cum suis a conventu discessit. 

Nos autem licet appellatio ista, minus Ca- 
nonica videretur, Sedi tamen Apostolicae defe- 
rentes, in personam hominis nullam voluimus 
proferre sententiam : Caeterum sententias pravi 
dogmatis ipsius, quia multo infecerant, et sui 
contagione adusque cordium intima penetrave- 
rant, saepe in audientia publica lectas et re- 
lectas, et tarn verissimis rationibus, quam Beati 
Augustini, aliorumque Sanctorum Patrum in- 



ductis a Domino Jlara-vallensi auctoritatibus, 
non solum falsas, sed et haereticas esse evi- 
dentissime comprobatas, pridie ante factam ad 
vos appellationem damnavimus. Et quia multos 
in errorem perniciosissimum et plane damna- 
bilem pertrahunt, eas auctoritate vestra, di- 
lectissime Domine, perpetua damnatione notari ; 
et omnes qui pervicaciter et contentiose illas 
defend erint, a vobis, aequissime Pater, juxta 
poena mulctari unanimiter «t multa precum 
instantia postulamus. 
_ Saepe dicto vero Petro, si Reverentia vestra 
silentium imponeret, et tarn legendi, quam scri- 
bendi prorsus interrumperet facultatem, et li- 
bros ejus perverso sine dubio dogmate respersos 
condemnaret, avulsis spinis et tribulis ab Eccle- 
sia Dei, prevaleret adhuc beta: Christi seges suc- 
crescere, flcrere, fructificare. Qusedam autem 
de condemnatis a nobis capitulis vobis, Reve- 
rende Pater, conscripta transmisimus, ut per 
haac audita reliqui corpus operis facilius ajsti- 
metis. 

Ob serve how St Bernard explains the system 
and errors of the celebrated Abelard. In chap- 
ter 1 of the treatise which he wrote, De erroH- 
bus Petri Abailardi, he says: 

" Habemus in Francia novum de veteri magis- 
ti-o Theologum, qui ab ineunte aetate sua in 
arte dialectica lusit ; et nunc in scripturis Sanctis 
insanit. Olim damnata et sopita dogmata, tarn 
sua videlicet quam aliena suscitare conatur, in- 
super et nova addit. Qui dum omnium qua? 
sunt ccelo sursum, et quae in terra deorsum, 
nihil praater solum Nescio nescire dignaturj 
ponit in ccelum os suum, et scrutator alta Dei, 
rediensque ad nos refert verba ineffabilia, quas 
non licet homini loqui. Et dum paratus est de 
omnibus reddere rationem, etiam qua? sunt 
supra rationem, et contra rationem praesumit, 
et contra fidem. Quid enim magis contra ratio- 
nem, quam ratione rationem conari transcen- 
dere ? Et quid magis contra fidem; quam cre- 
dere nolle, quidquid non possit ratione attin- 
gere ?" 

In chapter 4, he sums up, in a few words, 
the aberrations of the dialectician : 

" Sed advertite csetera. Omitto quod dicit 
spiritum timoris Domini non fuisse in Domino : 
timorem Domini castum in futuro seculo non 
futurum : post consecrationem panis et calicis 
priora accidentia quaa remanent pendere in aere : 
daemonum in nobis suggestiones contactu fieri 
lapidum et herbarium, prout illorum sagax ma- 
litia novit; harum rerum vires diversas, diver- 
sis incitandis et incendendis vitiis, convenire : 
Spiritum Sanctum esse animam mundi : mun- 
dum juxta Platonem tan to excellentius animal 
esse, quanto meliorem animam habet Spiritum 
Sanctum. Ubi dum multum sudat quomodo 
Platonem faciat Christianum, se probat ethni- 
cum. Hasc inquam omnia, aliasque istiusmodi 
namias ejus non paucas praetereo, venio ad 
graviora. Non quod vel ad ipsa cuncta re- 
spondeam, magnis enim opus voluminibus esset. 
Ilia loquor qua? tacere non possum. 

"Cum de Trinitate loquitur," says he in his 
letter 192, "sapit Arium, cum de Gratia sapit 
Pelagium, cum de persona Christi sapit Nes- 
torium." 

Pope Innocent, condemning the doctrines of 
Abelard, says : '' In Petri Abailardi perniciosa 
doctrina, et prasdictorum hasreses, et alia per- 
versa dogmata catholicae fidei obviantia pullu- 
lare coeperunt." 



APPENDIX. 



Note (a), p. 289. 

Quod necesse est homines simul viventes ab 
aliquo diligenter regi. 

Et siquidem homini conveniret singulariter 
vivere, sicut multis animalium, nullo alio diri- 
gente indigeret ad finem, sed ipse sibi unus- 
quisque esset rex sub Deo summo rege, in 
quantum per lumen rationis divinitus datum 
sibi, in suis actibus seipsum dirigeret. Natu- 
rale autem est homini ut sit animal sociale, et 
politicum, in multitudine vivens, magis etiam 
quam omnia alia animalia; quod quidem natu- 
ralis necessitas declarat. Aliis enim animalibus 
natura praeparavit cibum, tegumenta pilorum, 
defensionem, ut dentes, cornua, ungues, vel 
saltern velocitatem ad fugam. Homo autem 
institutus est nullo horum sibi a natura pra?pa- 
rato, sed loco omnium data est ei ratio, per 
quam sibi haec omnia officio manuum posset pra?- 
parare, ad quae omnia praeparanda unus homo 
not) sufficit. Nam unus homo per se sufficienter 
vitam transigere non posset. Est igitur homini 
naturale, quod in societate multorum vivat. 
Amplius, aliis animalibus insita est naturalis 
industria ad omnia ea qua? sunt eis utilia vel 
nociva, sicut ovis naturaliter extimet lupum 
inimicum. Quaedam etiam animalia ex natu- 
rali industria cognoscunt aliquas herbas medi- 
cinales, et alia eorum vitae necessaria. Homo 
autem horum, quae sunt suae vita? necessaria, 
naturalem cognitionem habet solum in com- 
muni, quasi eo per rationem valente ex uni- 
versalibus principiis ad cognitionem singulo- 
rum, quae necessaria sunt humanae vitae, per- 
venire. Non est autem possibile, quod unus 
homo ad omnia hujusmodi per suam rationem 
pertingat. Est igitur necessarium homini, quod 
in multitudine vivat, et unus ab alio adjuvetur, 
et diversi diversis inveniendis per rationem 
occuparentur, puta, unus in medicina, alius in 
hoc, alius in alio. Hoc etiam evidentissime 
declarator per hoc, quod est proprium hominis 
locutione uti, per quam unus homo aliis suum 
conceptum totaliter potest exprimere. Alia 
quidem animalia exprimunt mutuo passiones 
suas, in communi, ut canis in latratu iram, et 
alia animalia passiones suas diversis modis. 
Magis igitur homo est communicativus alteri, 
quam quodcumque aliud animal, quod gregale 
videtur, ut grus, formica, et apis. Hoc ergo 
considerans Salomon in Ecclesiaste ait : " Me- 
lius est esse duos, quam unum. Habent enim 
emolumentum mutua? societatis." Si ergo natu- 
rale est homini quod in societate multorum 
vivat, necesse est in hominibus esse, per quod 
multitudo regatur. Multis enim existentibus 
hominibus et uno quoque id quod est sibi con- 
gruum providente, multitudo in diversa disper- 
geretur, nisi etiam esset aliquis de eo quod ad 
bonum multitudinis pertinet, curam habens, 
sicut et corpus hominis, et cujuslibet animalis 
deflueret, nisi esset aliqua vis regitiva commu- 
nis in corpore, quae ad bonum commune om- 
nium membrorum intenderet. Quod considerans 

m 



Salomon dicit : " TJbi non est gubernator, dissi- 
pabitur populus." Hoc autem rationabiliter 
accidit : non enim idem est quod propium, et 
quod commune. Secundum propria quidem 
differunt, secundum autem commune uniuntur: 
diversorum autem diversa? sunt causa?. Oportet 
igitur praeter id quod movet ad propium bonum 
uniuscujusque, esse aliquid, quod movet ad 
bonum commune multorum. Propter quod et 
in omnibus qua? in unum ordinantur, aliquid 
invenitur alterius regitivum. In universitate 
enim corporum, per primum corpus, scilicet 
celeste, alia corpora ordine quodam divina? pro- 
videntia? reguntur, omniaque corpora, per crea- 
turam rationalem. In uno etiam homine anima 
regit corpus, atque inter anima? partes irascibilis 
et concupiscibilis ratione reguntur. Itemque 
inter membra corporis unum est principale, 
quod omnia movet, ut cor, aut caput. Oportet 
igitur esse in omni multitudine aliquod regiti- 
vum. (D. Th., Opusc. de Regimine Principum, 
L i. cap. L) 

Note (6), p. 290. 

Ubi considerandum est. quod dominium, vel 
pra?latio introducta sunt ex jure humano : dis- 
tinctio autem fidelium et infidelium est ex jure 
divino. Jus autem divinum quod est ex gratia, 
non tollit jus humanum qijod est ex naturali 
ratione : ideo distinctio fidelium et infidelium 
secundum se considerata, non tollit dominium, 
et pra?lationem infidelium supra fideles. (2. 2. 
quest. 10, art 10.) 

Note (c), p. 290. 

Respondeo dicendum quod sicut supra dictum 
est (quest. 10, art. 10), infidelitas secundum se 
ipsam non repugnat dominio, eo quod domi- 
nium introductum est de jure gentium, quod 
est jus humanum, Distinctio autem fidelium 
et infidelium est secundum jus divinum, per 
quod non tollitur jus humanum. (2. 2. quest 
12, art. 2.) 

Note {d), p. 290. 

Respondeo dicendum quod sicut actiones 
rerum naturalium procedunt ex potentiis natur- 
alibus : ita etiam operationes humana? proce- 
dunt ex humana voluntate. Oportuit autem in 
rebus naturalibus, ut superiora moverent infe- 
riora ad suas actiones per excellentiam natu- 
ralis virtutis collata? divinitus. Fnde et oportet 
in rebus humanis, quod superiores moveant in- 
feriores per suam voluntatem ex vi auctoritatis 
divinitus ordinata?. Movere autem per rationem 
et voluntatem est praecipere ; et ideo sicut ex 
ipso ordine naturali divinitus instituto inferiora 
in rebus naturalibus necesse habent subjici 
motioni superiorum, ita etiam in rebus humanis 
ex ordine juris naturalis et divini, tenentur 
inferiores suis superioribus obedire. (2. 2. 
j quest. 105, art. 1.) 



APPENDIX. 



489 



Note (e), p. 291. 

Obedire autem superiori debitum est secun- 
dum divinum ordinem rebus inditum ut osten- 
sum est. (2. 2. quest. 104, art. 2.) 

Note (/), p. 291. 

Respondeo dicendum quod fides Christi est 
justitiae principium, et causa, secundum illud 
Rom. iii. " Justitia Dei per fidem Jesu Christi;" 
et ideo per fidem Christi non tollitur ordo jus- 
titiae sed magis firmatur. Ordo autem justitiae 
requirit, ut inferiores suis superioribus obediant : 
aliter enim non posset humanarum rerum status 
conservari. Et ideo per fidem Christi non ex- 
cusantur fideles, quin principibus secularibus 
obedire teneantur. (2. 2. quest. 105, art. 6.) 

Note (g), p. 291. 

Certum est politicam potestatem a Deo esse a 
quo non nisi res bonae et licitse procedunt, et 
quod probat Aug. in toto fere 4 et 5 libr. de 
Civit. Dei. Nam sapientia Dei clamat, Pro- 
verb, viii. : Per me reges regnant; et infra: 
Per me principes imperant. Et Daniel ii. : 
Deus coeli regnum et imperium dedit tibi, &c. ; 
et Daniel iv. : Cum bestiis ferisque erit habi- 
tatio tua, et fenum, ut bos comedes, et rore coeli 
infunderis : septem quoque tempora mutabuntur 
super te, donee scias quod dominetur Excelsus 
super regnum hominum, et cuicumque voluerit, 
det illud. (Bell, de Laicis, 1. iii. c. 6.) 

Note (h), p. 291. 

Sed hie observanda sunt aliqua. Primo poli- 
ticam potestatem in universum consideratam, 
non descendendo in particulari ad monarchiam, 
aristocratiam, vel democratiam immediate esse 
a solo Deo ; nam consequitur necessario natu- 
ram hominis, proinde esse ab illo, qui fecit 
naturam hominis; praeterea haec potestas est 
de jure naturae, non enim pendet ex consensu 
hominum, nam velint, nolint, debent regi ab 
aliquo, nisi velint perire humanum genus, quod 
est contra naturae inclination em. At jus naturae 
est jus divinum, jure igitur divino introducta 
est gubernatio, et hoc videtur proprie velle 
Apostolus, cum dicit Rom. xiii : Qui potestati 
resistit, Dei ordinationi resistit. (lb.) 

Note (*), p. 292. 

Secundo nota, hanc potestatem immediate 
esse tanquam in subjecto, in tota multitudine, 
nam haec potestas est de jure divino. At jus 
divinum nulli homini particulari dedit hanc 
potestatem, ergo dedit multitudini; prasterea 
sublato jure positivo, non est major ratio cur 
ex multis aequalibus unus potius, quam alius 
dominetur : igitur potestas totius est multitu- 
dinis. Denique humana societas debet esse 
perfecta respublica, ergo debet habere potesta- 
tem se ipsam conservandi, et proinde puniendi 
perturbatores pacis, &c. (Ib.) 

Note (7c), p. 293. 

Tertionota, hanc potestatem transferri a mul- 
titudine in unum vel plures eodem jure naturae : 
62 



nam Respub. non potest per seipsam exercere 
hanc potestatem, ergo tenetur earn transferre in 
aliquem unum vel aliquos paucos; et hocmodo 
potestas principum in genere considerata, est 
etiam de jure naturae, et divino; nec posset 
genus humanum, etiamsi totum simul conveni- 
ret, contrarium statuere, nimirum, ut nulli essent 
principes vel rectores. (Ib.) 

Note (I), p. 293. 

Quarto nota, in particulari singulas species 
regiminis esse de jure gentium, non de jure 
naturae ; nam pendet a consensu multitudinis, 
constituere super se regem vel consules, vel 
alios magistratus, ut patet : et si causa legitima 
adsit, potest multitudo mutare regnum in aristo- 
cratiam, aut democratiam, et e contrario ut 
Romae factum legimus. 

Quinto nota, ex dictis sequi, hanc potestatam 
in particulari esse quidem a Deo, sed mediante 
consilio, et electione humana, ut alia omnia, 
quae ad jus gentium pertinent, jus enim gentium 
est quasi conclusio deducta ex jure naturae per 
humanum discursum. Ex quo colliguntur duse 
differentiae inter potestatem politicam, et eccle- 
siasticam: una ex parte subjecti, nam politica 
est in multitudine, ecclesiastica in uno homine 
tanquam in subjecto immediate; altera ex 
parte efficientis, quod politica universe con- 
siderata est de jure divino, in particulari consi- 
derata est de jure gentium; ecclesiastica omni- 
bus modis est de jure divino, et immediate 
a Deo. (Ib.) 

Note (m), p. 294. 

In hac re communis sententia videtur esse, 
hanc potestatem dari immediate a Deo ut auc- 
tore naturae, ita ut homines quasi disponant 
materiam et efficiant subjectum capax hujus 
potestatis ; Deus autem quasi tribuat formam 
dando hanc potestatem. Cita a Cajet. Covar. 
Victor, y Soto. (De Leg. L iii. c. 3.) 

Note (n), p. 294. 

Secundo sequitur ex edictis, potestatem civi- 
lem, quoties in uno homine, vel principe repe- 
ritur, legitimo, ac ordinario jure, a populo, et 
communitate manasse, vel proxime vel remote, 
nec posse aliter haberi, ut justa sit. (Ibid, 
cap. 4.) 

Note (o), p. 294. 

Defensio Pidei Catholicae et Apostolicas ad- 
versus Anglicanae sectas errores, cum respon- 
sione ad apologiam pro juramento fidelitatis et 
praefationem monitoriam serenissimi Jacobi 
Angliae Regis, Authore P. D. Francisco Suario 
Gratanensi, e Societate Jesu, Sacraa Theologiae 
in celebri Conimbricensi Academia Primario 
Professore, ad serenissimos totius Christiani 
orbis Catholicos Reges ac Principes. 

Lib. 3. De Primatu Summi Pontificis, cap. 2. 
Utrum Principalis politicus sit immediate a 
Deo, seu ex divina institutione. 

In qua rex serenissimus non solum 

novo, et singulari modo opinatur, sed etiam 
acriter invehitur in Cardinalem Bellarminum, 
eo quod asseruerit, non regibus authoritatem a 
Deo immediate, perinde ac pontificibus esse 



490 APPENDIX. 



coneessam. Asserit ergo ipse, regem non a 
populo, sed immediate a Deo suam potestatem 
habere ; suam vero sententiam quibusdam argu- 
mentis, et exemplis suadere conatur, quorum 
efficaciam in sequenti capite expendemus. 

Sed quamquam controversia hoec ad Jidei dog- 
mata directe non pertineat (nihil enim ex divina 
Scriptura, aut Patrum traditione in ilia defini- 
turn ostendi potest), nihilominus diligenter tract- 
anda, et explicanda est. Turn quia potest esse 
occasio errandi in aliis dogmatibus ; turn etiam 
quia prasdicta regis sententia, prout ab ipso 
asseritur et intenditur, nova et singularis est, et 
ad exaggerandam temporalem potestatem, et 
spiritualem extenuandam videtur inventa. Turn 
denique quia sententiam illustrissimi Bellar- 
mini antiqnam, receptam, veram, ac necessariam 
esse cememw. 



tota hominum collectione, docet conceptis verbis 
S. Thomas 1. 2. qu. 90. art. 3 ad 2. et qu. 97. 
art. 3 ad 3 quern sequuntur Dominicus Soto, 
lib. 1. qu. 1. art. 3. Ledesma 2. Part. qu. 18. art. 
3. Covarruvias in pract. cap. 1. Ratio evidens 
est: quia omnes homines nascuntur liberi, 
respectu civilis imperii ; ergo nemo in alterum 
civili potestate potitur. Neque ergo in singu- 
lis, neque in aliquo determinato potestas haec 
reperitur. Consequitur ergo in tota hominum 
collectione eamdem extare. Quae potestas non 
confertur a Deo per aliquam actionem pecu- 
liarem a creatione distinctam ; sed est veluti 
; proprietas ipsam rectam rationem consequens, 
| quatenus recta ratio pra_>scribit ut homines in 
' unum moraliter congregati, expresso aut taeito 
| concensu modum dirigendse, conservandae, pro- 
pugnandaeque societatis praescribant. 



Note (p), p. 295. 

R. P. Hermann! Busembaum Societatis Jesu 
Theologia Moralis, nunc pluribus partibus aucta 
a R. P. D. Alphonso de Ligorio Rectore majore 
congregationis SS. Redemptoris ; adjuncta in 
calce operis, praeter indicem rerum, et verborum 
locupletissimum, perutiliinstructione ad praxim 
confessariorium Latine reddita. 

Lib. 1, Tract 2. De legibus, cap. 1. De na- 
tura, et obligatione legis. Dub. 2. 

104. Certum est dari in hominibus potestatem 
ferendi leges; sed potestas haec quoad leges 
civiles a natura nemini competit, nisi commu- 
nitati hominum, et ab hac transfertur in unum, 
vel in plures, a quibus communitas regatur. 

Note (q), p. 295. 

Theologia Christiana Dogmatico-Moralis Auc- 
tore P. F. Daniele Concina ordinis Praedicato- 
rum. Editio novissima, tomus sextus, de Jure 
nat. et gent., &c. Romae, 1768. 

Lib. 1. De Jure natur. et gent., <fcc. Disser- 
tatio 4, De leg. hum. C. 2. 

Summae potestatis originem a Deo communi- 
ter arcessunt scriptores omnes. Idque declara- 
vit Salomon, Prov. viii. "Per me reges regnant, 
ct legum conditores justa decernunt." Et pro- 
fecto quemadmodum inferiores principes a 
sumina majestate, ita summa majestas terrena a 
supremo Rege, Dominoque dominantium pen- 
deat necesse est. Illud in disputationem vocant 
turn theologi, turn jurisconsulti, sit ne a Deo 
proxime, an tantum remote hasc potestas sum- 
ma? Immediate a Deo haberi contendunt 
plures, quod ab hominibus neque conjunctim, 
neque sigillatim acceptis haberi possit. Omnes 
enim patres familias aequales sunt, solaque 
ceconomica in propias familias potestate fruun- 
tur. Ergo civilem politicamque potestatem, 
qua ipsi carent, conferre aliis nequeunt. Turn 
si potestas summa a communitate, tanquam 
a superiore, uni, aut pluribus collata esset, revo- 
cari ad nutum ejusdem communitatis posset; 
cum superior pro arbitrio retractare communi- 
catam potestatem valeat; quod in magnum so- 
cietatis detrimentum recideret. 

Contra disputant alii, et quidem probabiliits 
ac verius, advertentes omnem quidem potesta- 
tem a Deo esse; sed addunt, non transferri in 
particulares homines immediate, sed mediante 
societatis civilis consensu. Quod haec potestas 
sit immediate, non in aliquo singulari, sed in 



Note (r), p. 296. 

Hinc infertur, potestatem residentem in prin- 
cipe, rege, vel in pluribus, aut optimatibus, aut 
plebeiis, ab ipsa communitate aut proxime, aut 
remote proficisci. Nam potestas haec a Deo 
immediate non est. Id enim nobis constare 
peculiari revelatione deberet; quemadmodum 
scimus, Saulem et Davidem electos a Deo 
fuisse. Ab ipsa ergo communitate dimanet 
oportet. 

Falsam itaque reputamus opinionem illam 
quae asserit, potestatem hanc immediate et 
proxime a Deo conferri regi, principi, et cuique 
supremae potestati, excluso Reipublica3 tacito, 
aut expresso consensu. Quamquam lis haec 
verborum potius quam rei est Nam potestas 
haec a Deo auctore naturae est, quatenus dispo- 
suit, et ordinavit ut ipsa Respublica pro societatis 
conservatione, et defensiune, uni, aut pluri- 
bus supremam regiminis potestatem conferret. 
Immo facta designatione imperantis, aut im- 
perantium, potestas haec a Deo manare dicitur, 
quatenus jure naturali, et divino tenetur, socie- 
tas ipsa parere imperanti. Quoniam reipsa 
Deus ordinavit ut per unum, aut per plures 
hominum societas regatur. Et hac via omnia 
conciliantur placita : et oracula Scripturarum 
vero in sensu exponuntur. Qui resistit potes- 
tati, Dei ordinationi resistit. Et iterum : Non 
est potestas nisi a Deo: ad Rom. viii. Et Pe- 
trus Epist. 1, cap. ii. Subject! igitur estote 
omni humanae creaturae propter Deum : sivc 
Regi, &c. Item Joan. xix. Non haberes po- 
testatem adversum me ullam, nisi tibi datum 
esset desuper. Qua?, alia testimonia evincunt, 
omnia a Deo, supremo rerum omnium modera- 
tore, disponi, et ordinari. At non propterea 
humana consilia, et operationes excluduntur; 
ut sapienter interpretantur S. Augustinus tract. 
6, in Joan, et lib. 22. cont. Faustum, cap. 47, 
et S. Joannes Chrysostomus Horn. 23, in Epist. 
ad Rom. 

Note (»), p. 296. 

Quinam possint ferre leges ? Dico 1. Po- 
testas legislativa competit communitati vel illi, 
qui curam communitatis gerit. (Ibid. art. 3. 0.) 

Prob. 1. Ex Isidoro L. 5, Etyniol. C. 10 et 
refertur C. Lex, Dist. 4. ubi dicit : Lex est con- 
stitute populi, secundum quam majores natu 
simul cum plebibus aliquid sanxerunt. (Ibid, 
in art. 1. 0.) 



APPENDIX. 



491 



Prob. 1. Ratione. (Ibid. 0.) Illius est condere 
legem, eujus est prospicere bono communi; 
quia, ut dictum est, leges feruntur propter bo- 
num commune : atqui est communis, vel illius, 
cui curam communitatis habet, prospicere bono 
communi : sicut enim bonum particulare est 
finis proportionatus agenti particulari, ita bo- 
num commune est finis proportionatus commu- 
nitati, vel ejus vices gerenti ; ergo. Confirma- 
tur: (Ibid, ad 2.) lex habet vim imperandi et 
coercendi ; atqui nemo privatus habet vim im- 
perandi multitudini et earn coercendi, sed sola 
ipsa multitudo, vel ejus Rector: Ergo. (Tract, 
de Legi. Art. 4.) 

Note (t), p. 296. 

Dices: Superioris est imperare et coercere; 
atqui communitas non est sibi superior : Ergo 
R. D. Min. Communitas, sub eodem respectu 
considerata, non est sibi superior, C. Sub di- 
verso respectu, N. Potest itaque communitas 
considerari collective, per modum unius corpo- 
ris moralis, et sic considerata est superior sibi 
consideratae distributive in singulis membris. 
Item potest considerari vel ut gerit vices Dei, a 
quo omnis potestas legislativa descendit, juxta 
illud Proverb. Per me reges regnant, et legum 
conditores justa decernunt ; vel ut est guberna- 
bilis in ordine ad bonum commune : primo 
modo considerata est superior et legislativa; 
secundo modo considerata est inferior et legis 
susceptiva. 

Note («), p. 297. 

Quod ut clarius percipiatur, observandum 
est hominem inter animalia nasci maxime des- 
titutum pluribus turn corporis cum animae ne- 
cessariis, pro quibus indigct aliorum consortio 
et adjutorio, consequenter eum ipsapte natura 
nasci animal sociale: societas autem quam 
natura, naturalisve ratio dictat ipsi necessariam, 
diu subsistere non potest, nisi aliqua publica 
potestate gubernetur ; juxta illud Proverb. Ubi 
non est gubernator, populus corruet. Ex quo 
sequitur, quod Deus, qui dedit talem naturam, 
simul ei dederit potestatem gubernativam et 
legislativam, qui enim dat formam, dat etiam 
ea, quae hasc forma necessario exigit. Verum, 
quia haec potestas gubernativa et legislativa 
non potest exerceri a tota multitudine ; difficile 
namque foret, omnes et singulos simul conve- 
nire toties quoties providendum est de necessa- 
riis bono communi, et de legibus ferendis ; ideo 
solet multitudo transferee suum jus seu potesta- 
tem gubernativam, vel in aliquos de populo ex 
omni conditione, et dicitur Democratia; vel in 
paucos optimates, et dicitur Aristpcratia ; vel in 
unum tantum, sive pro se solo, sive pro succes- 
soribus jure hagreditario, et dicitur Monarchia. 
Ex quo sequitur, omnem potestatem esse a Deo, 
ut elicit Apost. Rom. xiii. immediate quidem et 
jure naturae in communitate, mediate autem 
tantum et jure humano in Regibus et aliis j 
Rectoribus : nisi Deus ipse immediate aliquibus | 



hanc potestatem conferat, ut contulit Moysi in 
populum Israel, et Christus SS. Pontifici in to- 
tam Ecclesiam. 

Hanc potestatem legislativam in Christianos, 
maxime justos, non agnoscunt, Lutherani et Cal- 
vinistm, secuti in hoc Valdenses, Wicleffum, et 
Joan. Hus. damnatos in Cone. Constant, sess. 6. 
can. 15. Ut quamvis Joannes Hus earn agnos- 
ceret in principibus bonis, earn tamen denega- 
bat malis, pariter ideo damnatus in eodem 
Concil. sess. 8. 

Note (x), p. 297. 

Compendium Salmatic. authore R. P. F. R. 
Antonio a S. Joseph olim Lectore, priore ac exa- 
minatore Synodali in suo collegio Burgensi, 
nunc procuratore generali in Romana Curia pro 
Carmelitarum Discalceatorum Hispanica Con- 
gregatione. Romae, 1779. Superiorum per- 
missu. Tractatus 3, De Legibus, cap. 2. De 
potestate ferendi leges. 

Punctum 1. De potestate legislativa civili. 

Inq. 1. An detur in hominibus potestas con- 
dendi leges civiles ? R. Affirm, constat ex illo 
Prov. viii. Per me reges regnant, et legum con- 
ditores justa decernunt. Idem patet ex Apost. 
ad Rom. xiii. et tanquam de fide est definitum 
in Cone. Const, sess. 8, et ultima. Prob. ration, 
quia ad conservationem boni communis requiri- 
tur publica potestas, qua communitas guberne- 
tur : nam ubi non est gubernator, corruet popu- 
lus, sed nequid gubernator communitatem nisi 
mediis legibus gubernare : ergo certum est dari 
in hominibus potestatem condendi leges, quibus 
populus possit gubernari. Ita D. Th. lib. i. de 
regim. princip. c. 1 et 2. 

Inq. 2. An potestas legislativa civilis conve- 
niat principi immediate a Deo ? R. omnes asse- 
runt dictam potestatem habere principes a Deo. 
Verius tamen dicitur, non immediate sed medi- 
ante populi consensu illam eos a Deo recipere. 
Nam omnes homines sunt in natura aequales, 
nec unus est superior, nec alius inferior ex na- 
tura, nulli enim dedit natura supra alterum 
potestatem, sed haec a Deo data est hominum 
communitati, quae judicans rectius fore guber- 
nandum per unam vel per plures personas 
determinatas, suam transtulit potestatem in 
unam, vel plures, a quibus regeretur, ut ait D. 
Th. 1. 2. q. 90. a. 3. ad. 2. 

Ex hoc naturali principio oritur discrimen 
regiminis civilis. Nam si Respublica transtulit 
omnem suam potestatem in unum solum, appel- 
latur Regimen Monarchicum ; si illam contulit 
Optimatibus populi, nuncupatur Regimen Aris- 
tocraticum; si vero populus, aut Respublica 
sibi retineat talem potestatem, dicitur Regimen 
Democraticum. Habent igitur Principes re- 
gendi potestatem a Deo, quia supposita elec- 
tione a Republica facta, Deus illam potestatem, 
qua? in communitate erat, Principi confert. 
Unde ipse nomine Dei regit, et gubernat, et qui 
illi resistit, Dei ordinationi resistit, ut dicit 
Apost. loco supra laudato. 



INDEX. 



Abbon, a monk — his poem on the siege of 
Paris, 241. 

Abelard, account of, 401; error of M. Guizot 
with regard to him, 402; document proving 
this, 486. 

Abuses, checked by the Church, 422. 

Ademar, his chronicle, 241. 

Adon, Archbishop of Vienne — his work on 

uni% r ersal history, 241. 
Adrian (Pope) protects the marriages of slaves, 

113; his doctrine on the right of slaves to 

marry, 113. 
Agde, Councils of, 103; ibid, decree against 

those who refused to be reconciled, 176. 
Aix-la-Chapel!e, Council of, enjoins bishops to 

found hospitals to contain all the poor that 

their revenues can support, 18S. 
Albigenses described, 252. 
Alphonsus Cof Ligouri^), on power of making 

laws, 295. 

Amat (Don Felix,), his false political theory, 
333; ibid, on resistance to government, 471. 

Ambrose (St.), conduct of towards the Em- 
peror Theodosius, 178; sells the sacred ves- 
sels to redeem slaves, 432. 

Anabaptists, excesses committed by, in Ger- 
many in the 16th century, 197. 

Angers, Council of, its decree against acts of 
violence, 176. 

Anselm (St.), writings of, 403; ibid, on St. 
Paul to the Romans, 459; extracts from, 
showing his way of viewing religious mat- 
ters, 485; intellectual movement in the 
Church within the limits of faith, 4S6 ; he 
anticipates Descartes' demonstration of the 
existence of a God, 485. 

Arabians, their civilization described, 237 ; 
probability that they were indebted to the 
eastern monasteries for much of their know- 
ledge, 237; the connexion between their 
science and that of antiquity may yet be 
found, 237. 

Arbogen, Council of, forbids church burial to 
be given to pirates, ravishers, &c, 182. 

Aristocracy in the 16th century, consisted of 
the nobles and clergy, 348 ; differences be- 
tween them, 349 ; intermediate class between 
the throne and the people, 349. 

Aristotle, immoral doctrine of, 443 ; his views 
on public education, 443; his absurd inter- 
ference of the State in domestic matters, 
443 ; his doctrines reformed by Christianity, 
351. 

Aries, Council of, its decree against feuds, 177. 
Armasrh, Council of, 109; ibid, frees all the 

English slaves, 437. 
Association, a favorite principle of Catholicity, 

189. 

Atheism, tendency towards, in the 17th cen- 
tury, 61. 



Augustin CSt.), his description of paganism, 
89; his noble sentiments on slavery, 111 ; re- 
markable passages from, on political forms, 
390 ; on the name Catholic being given to 
the true Church only, 422. 

Author, declaration of, 419. 

Authority in religion, tendency towards, in 
the 17th century, 61. 

Avignon, Council of, its decree in favor of the 
truce of God, 181. 

Aymon (of AquitaineJ writes the history of 
the French, 241. 

Barbarians, those who invaded the Roman 
Empire described, 122; their real condition, 
444 ; their laws and manners, 447. 

Barcelona, councillors of, their bold language 
to the king of Spain, 340 ; its trades- associa- 
tions described by Capmany, 477. 

Bayle, dictionary of, described, 63 ; its effects, 
63. 

Bellarmine, doctrine of, on the divine law, 291 ; 
on the civil power, 292, on the distinction 
between political and ecclesiastical power, 
293 ; vindication of, 294. 

Benedict (St J, described, 238; his monastic in- 
stitute, 238. 

Beneficence, public, unknown to the ancients, 
184 ; was the work of Christianity, 184 ; it 
required permanent institutions, 184 ; they 
were conceived and founded by the Church, 
185 ; institutions of, founded by Catholicity, 
185; they require the support of Christian 
charity, 189. 

Bernard (St ), observations on, 409. 

Beza, evidence of, against Protestantism, 423 

Bible, why forbidden in the vulgar tongue in 
Spain, 215. 

Bible Societies, effects of, 64. 

Billuart, F., on the riarhtof making laws, 296 ; 
on the origin of society and the civil power, 
296. 

Bishops, slaves of, set free at their death by de- 
cree of Council, 108. 

Bonald on the Esprit des Lois, 186; his doc- 
trines, 283. 

Boneuil, Council of, described, 106. 

Bossuet, his negotiations with Leibnitz to re- 
unite the Churches, 61 ; school of, 283 : his 
Universal History the first great work on 
the philosophy of history, 418. 

Brentzen, testimony of, to the incredulity pre- 
vailing among the early reformers, 429. 

Brescia, Arnauld of, troubles excited by, 251. 

Bruis (Tierre de), his iconoclastic fanaticism, 
251. 

Buchanan, his remark on the degradation ot 
women wherever Christianity docs not pre- 
vail, 136. 

Bull-fights, those of Spain discussed, 174. 
493 



491 I N D 

Busenbaum on the power of making- laws, 295. 
Bull (Coena Domini) containing- an excom- 1 

municatinn against those who levy excessive j 

taxes, 360 

CjEsar (J.) on the manners of the Germans 
and Britons, 153. 

Calmet, on St. Paul to the Romans, 461. 

Calv in, intolerance of, 421 ; his vulgar abuse, 
421 ; evidence of, in favor of the Pope, 423. 

Calvinism, as connected with democracy, 355. 

Capmany on the trades-corporations of Barce- 
lona, 477. 

Carranza, trial of, 212; its duration, 212; car- 
ried to Rome, 212; his dying declaration, 
212; conduct of Philip II. towards him, 213; 
causes of his trial, 213; nature of his writ- 
ing's, 214 ; his reason why the Scriptures in 
the vulgar tongue were forbidden in Spain, 
215. 

Cassian, his account of the origin of religious 
institutions, 223. 

Cathari, the, described, 251. 

Catholicity, its doctrines always the same, 65; 
its past services to society, and what may 
be expected from it for the future, 73; its 
progress in several countries of Europe, 74 ; 
not opposed to the true spirit of liberty, 80; 
its effects on European civilization, 80; was 
strong- in the west and weak in the east, 81 ; 
importance of the unity produced by it for 
the safety of Europe amid perils, SI ; degra- 
ded condition of society when it appeared, 
90; not opposed to the feeling- of individual- 
ity, but promotes it, 131 ; the elevation of 
woman due to it alone, 135, 155; places wo- 
men on an equality with men, 135; mistake 
of its opponents, 149 ; its institutions falsely 
assailed by Protestants and philosophers, 
147 ; its exertion in favor of beneficence im- 
peded by Protestantism, which compelled it ! 
to stand on its defence, 188 ; unfairly treated 
with regard to tolerance, 190; its doctrine 
with respect to errors of the mind, 200; was 
the work of God, 256 ; its fertility in re- 
sources, 257 ; its charity, 257 ; its true doc- 
trines with reg-ard to the civil power, 323 ; 
its relations with the people, 353 ; its rela- 
tions with liberty, 357 ; its effects on the de- 
velopment of the intellect, 392 ; effects of its 
principle of submission to authority, 393 ; 
effects of the same on the sciences, 393 ; an- 
cient and modern philosophy compared with 
it, 395; its morality, 397; its revealed dog- 
mas, 397 ; is not opposed to true philosophy, j 
397; compared with Protestantism with re- 
spect to learning-, universities, &c. , 412; its 
unity and concert, 423 ; its services against 
slavery.^ — (See Slavery.) 

Celchite, Council of, 109. 

Celibacy, influence of that of the clergy in 
preventing- an hereditary succession, accord- ' 
ing- to Guizot, 351 : what would have hap- 
pened without it, 352. 

Censors, among- the ancients, they took the j 
place of religious authority, 161. 

Chalons, Council of. 103. 

Chalons-sur-Saone, Council of, excommuni- ! 

cates those who fight within the precincts of ! 

churches, 176. 
Chanoinesses, enjoined by the Council of Aix j 

to keep an hospital for poor women, 188. 
Charity, its effects on toleration, 192. 
Charles V., why released from his oath by the 

Pope, 210. 



E X . 

Chateaubriand, writings of, described, 71 ; de- 
scribes Zachary as selling- himself as a slave 
to buy the liberty of a husband for his wife 
and children, 104; extract from, on the ef- 
fects of Catholicity and Protestantism, 415. 
Chivalry, its relations with women, 150; did 
not elevate them, but found them elevated 
by Christianity, 151. 
Christ, all his miracles beneficent, 184; his 

whole life spent in doing- good, 184. 
Christians, the early, their constancy in mar- 
tyrdom, 224; they seek asylums for retire- 
ment and prayer in the deserts, 224. 
Christianity, effects of, on society, 67 ; effects 
produced by its appearance, 88; opposes 
slavery, 102; could not endure the savag-e 
heroism of the Romans, 104; development 
of the moral life by means of, 134 ; was un- 
known to the ancients, 134; the effects which 
would have followed from the loss of its in- 
fluence on Europe, 134 ; ideas of some mod- 
ern philosophers with reg-ard to it, 156; how 
it is embodied in Catholicity, 156; its pro- 
gress in the early ag-es described, 230 ; its 
effects on the invading barbarians, 235. 
Church, the Catholic, services of, to society, in 
combating- the fatalist doctrines of the Re- 
formation, 6S ; her opposition to slavery, 102; 
she protects the freedom of newly emanci- 
pated slaves, 103; consecrates manumission 
by having it performed in the churches, 103; 
protects slaves recommended to her by will, 
103; allows her sacred vessels to be sold to 
redeem slaves, 104 ; gives letters of recom- 
mendation to emancipated slaves, 105; 
causes tending- to promote slavery with 
which she had to contend, 105; she makes 
a law enabling those who had been com- 
pelled to sell themselves as slaves to recover 
their liberty by paying- back the price, 106; 
she allows her ministers to give their liberty 
to slaves belonging to her, while she forbids 
other property - to be alienated, 103 ; sum- 
mary of her measures for the abolition of 
slavery, 114 — (see Councils) ; its abolition 
due to her alone, 114; reforms marriage, 
136; preserves its sanctity, 137; great evils 
thereby prevented, 137; her unity in doc- 
trines and fixity in conduct not inconsistent 
with progress," 145 ; her struggles with the 
corrupted Romans and savage barbarians, 
176 ; decrees of her Councils against ani- 
mosities, 176; her persevering efforts, 177 ; 
treats kings and great men as severely as 
the lowly, 177 ; her" boldness in checking the 
crimes of kings, 17S; her interference in 
civil affairs of old justified by the circum- 
stances of the times, 182; her Councils pro- 
tect the weak — viz. clergy, monks, women, 
merchants and pilgrims — against the strong, 
1S2 : her exertions in favor of the vanquish- 
ed in war, 1S3 : she preserves unity of faith, 
and founds institutions for doing good, 185; 
what she would have done for the cure of 
pauperism if the Reformation had not plun- 
ged Europe into revolutions and reactions, 
183 ; encourages the aristocracy of talent, 
361 ; service which she did to the human 
mind by opposing" the spirit of subtlety of 
the innovators, 407 ; her interference in the 
management of hospitals, 449. 
Churches, the Protestant, only the instruments 

of the civil power, 1S6. 
Cicero, on the necessity of religion to the State, 
316. 



INDEX. 



495 



Civilization, that of Europe during the 16th 
century not owing to Protestantism, 82 ; cha- 
racteristics of that of modern Europe de- 
scribed, 115; compared with ancient and 
modern non-Christian civilization, 116; its 
superiority owing to Catholicity, 117; may 
be reduced to three elements — the individual, 
the family, and society, 117; its universal 
progress impeded, and unity broken, by 
Protestantism, 260. 

Clement, St. (Pope), passage from, on Chris- 
tians selling themselves as slaves to redeem 
their brethren, 104. 

Clergy, the effects on society of their power and 
influence, 175; fatal effects of the diminu- 
tion of their political influence in the 16th 
century, 370; advantages which might have 
resulted from it to popular institutions, 373; 
their relations with all the powers and class- 
es of society, 373. 

Clermont. Council of, its decree in favor of the 
truce of God, 181. 

Coblentz, Council of, 106. 

Concina (P.), on the origin of power, 295; 

how it exists in governments, 296. 
Conduct, firmness of, its powerful effects in the 

world, 145. 

Conscience, the public, described, 157 ; that of 
Europe contrasted with that of ancient times, 
159; how influenced by the Church, 160; 
both illustrated by the story of Scipio, 165; 
the former was formed by Catholicity alone, 
166. 

Conscience, the individual, described, 158. 

Constance, Council of, its doctrine on the mur- 
der of kings, 336. 

Cornelius a Lapide, on St. Paul to the Ro- 
mans, 460. 

Cortes, severe measures of that of Toledo 
aarainst the Jews, 205 ; decline of, in Spain, 
3^1. 

Cottereaux, excesses of, 252. 

Councils of the Church, their influence on po- 
litical laws and customs, 360 ; canons of, 
which improve the condition of slaves, 430 ; 
check all attempts against the liberty of the 
enfranchised slaves of the Church, or who 
had been recommended to her by will, 431 ; 
undertake that the Church will defend the 
liberty and property of the freed who have 
been recommended to her, 431; make the 
redemption of captives the first care of the 
Church, and give their interests precedence 
over her own, 432; excommunicate those 
who attempt to reduce men into slavery, 
433 ; declare those who make Christians 
slaves to be g-uilty of homicide, 434 ; ordain 
that those who have sold themselves as slaves 
shall recover their liberty by repaying the 
price, 434; protect the slaves belonging to 
Jews. 434 ; provide means for their becom- 
ing free, 434 ; forbid Jews to acquire new 
Christian slaves, 435 ; ordain that if a mas- 
ter erives meat to a slave on a fasting day, 
the tatter becomes free, 435; forbid Jews to 
hold Christian slaves at all, 435; forbid 
Christian slaves to be sold to Jews or pa- 
gans, 435; or to be sold out of the kingdom 
of Clovis, 436 ; severely condemn cleric s 
who sell their slaves to Jews, 436 ; command 
bishops to respect the liberty of those freed 
by their predecessors, 436; they mention the j 
power given to bishops to free deserving | 
slaves, and fix the sum which they may give 
them to live on, 436; exempt them from the ! 



general rule, that alienations made by bish- 
ops who leave nothing of their own must be 
restored, 436; ordain that when a bishop 
dies, all his slaves shall be set at liberty, and 
that at the funeral each bishop or abbot may 
set three slaves free, giving them three solidi 
each, 436; free all the English slaves in Ire- 
land, 437 ; forbid slaves of the Church to be 
exchanged for others, 437 ; grant liberty to 
slaves who wish to embrace the monastic 
life, with proper precautions to prevent 
abuses, 437 ; check the abuse of ordaining 
slaves without the consent of their masters, 
437 ; allow parish priests to select some cle- 
rics from the slaves of the Church, 438 ; al- 
low slaves to be ordained, having been first 
freed, 438. 
Crusades vindicated, 242. 

Cyprian (St.), on the redemption of captives, 
432. 

De Maistre on the word "catholic," 422; on 
general Councils, 480; compares the con- 
duct of the Popes with that of other rulers, 
4S4. 

Democrats, difference between ancient and 
modern, 130. 

Democracy, its alliance with kings against 
the aristocracy, 308; notion formed of, in 
the 16th century, 350; two kinds of, 364; 
their progress in the history of Europe, 365; 
their characters, 366; their causes and ef- 
fects, 366 ; historical facts with regard to, in 
France, England, Sweden, Denmark, and 
Germany, 367. 

Descartes, his demonstration of the existence* 
of God anticipated by St. Anselm, 4S6. 

Divorce, consequences of the facility of, in 
Germany, according to M. de Stael, 139. 

Divines, spirit of the writings of the old Cath- 
lic, compared with that of modern writers, 
238. 

Doctrines, their effects on society, 311 ; those 
prevalent in the 16th century with regard to 
democracy, 350; those prevalent in political 
matters in Europe before the appearance of 
Protestantism compared with those of the 
school of the 18th century and those of mo- 
dern publicists, 374. 

Dominicans, their exertions in favor of the 
native Americans, as stated by Robertson, 
441. 

East, the, injury caused there by breaking 

unity in religion, 235. 
Elvira, Council of, its decree in favor of slaves, 

100. 

England, policy of, towards Spain, 76. 
Eon, his fanatical delusion, 251. 
Epaone, Council of, 100. 
Erigena, account of, 400. 

Errors, those of the mind not always inno- 
cent, 200. 
Error described, 70. 

Europe, characteristics of her civilization, 116; 
condition of, in the 13th century, 245 etseq.; 
singular contrasts therein, 246 ; struggle be- 
tween barbarism and Christianity there, 247; 
instances of great and good principles some- 
times abused in practice, 247; barbarism 
therein improved by religion, and religion 
disfigured by barbarism, 248 ; effects of the 
crusades, 249 ; increasing power of the com- 
monalty, 249 ; decline of the feudal system, 
249; power of great ideas, 250; critical 



496 



INDEX. 



epochs, 250; great agitation prevailing-, and 
horrible doctrines spread, among the people 
at that time, 250 — (see Tancheme, Eon, Ca- 
thari, Vaudois, Albigenses) ; what she would 
have done for civilization if she had not been 
impeded by Protestantism, 261 ; her condi- 
tion when it appeared, 261 ; great increase 
of power and development of mind, 262 ; 
divisions occasioned by it, 262 ; the nations 
thereof require religious institutions for or- 

Sanizing beneficence and education on a 
uge scale, 277 ; state of, at the end of the 
15th century, 344; social movement at that 
time, 344 ; its causes, 344 ; its effects and ob- 
ject, 345; development of the industrial 
classes there, 354 ; this took place under the 
influence of Catholicity alone, 3S5; picture 
of, from the 11th century to the 14th, 382; 
religion and the human mind there, 404 ; 
intellectual condition of the nations of mo- 
dern, distinguished from that of those of an- 
tiquity, 405 ; causes which have accelerated 
it among the former, 406. 
Eximeno, letter of, on the sciences, 425. 

Facts, consummated, how they are to be 

treated, 333. 
Faith, unity of, not adverse to political liberty, 

388. 

Forms, political, their value, 357. 

Francis I. (of France), his opinion on the ne- 
cessity of expelling the Moors from Spain, 
210. 

Francis, St. (de Sales), his list of titles given 
to the Popes, 423. 

Franks, their custom of going armed to church 
forbidden by Councils, 176. 

Free-will, its denial discarded by Protestants 
themselves, 68 ; its effects, 68 ; its noble re- 
sults, 134 ; supported by Catholicity against 
the Reformation, 135. 

Gambling, passion of, described, 142. 

Games, public, those of the Romans prohi- 
bited by the Christian Church, 175. 

Gerbet (l'Abbe"), his excellent refutation of 
Lammenais' doctrines, 338. 

Germans, manners of the ancient, described 
by Tacitus, 152 ; why embellished by him, 
153; are but little known to us, 154; their 
struggles with the Romans, 154. 

Gibbon, testimony of, to the merits of Bossuet's 
History of the Variations, 421. 

Gilles (St.), Council of, its decree in favor of 
the truce of God, 179. 

Gironne, Council of, in favor of the truce of 
God, 180. 

Glaber (Monk), of Cluny, his history of 

France, 241. 
Gotti (Cardinal), doctrines of, on the origin 

of power, 295. 
Gouget (l'Abbe), on Catholic Hebrew studies, 

413. 

Government, three principles of — monarchy, 
aristocracy, and democracy, 344. 

Governments, revolutionary ones are cruel in 
self-defence, not being based on right, 128 ; 
right of resistance to de facto ones, 330; 
falsehood of the theory which imposes the 
obligation of obeying- them merely as such, 
331 ; difficulties on this point explained, 332. 

Grace, effects of the Catholic doctrine of, 234. 

Gratian, merit of his literary labors, 241. 

Gregory (Pope) , passage from, 108 ; frees two 
slaves of the Roman Church, 436 ; his rea- 



son why Christians liberated their slaves, 
436. 

Gregory III. (Pope), on selling slaves to the 

pagans for sacrifice, 435. 
Gregory IX. (Pope), his decretals on slavery, 

109 ; against the hereditary succession of the 

clergy, 352. 

Gregory XVI. (Pope), his apostolic letters 

against the slave trade, 438. 
Grotius, his servile doctrine on the civil power, 

323; his evidence in favor of Catholicity, 

424. 

Gruet, his incredulity and execution, 429. 

Guibert, historical labors of, 241. 

Guizot, on the effects of the Church upon slave- 
ry, 113; his doctrine of the personal inde- 
pendence of individuals among the barba- 
rians stated and discussed, 119; true the- 
ory thereon, 121 ; incoherence of his own 
doctrines, 124; cause of his error, 125; his 
acknowledgment with regard to the refor- 
mation and liberty, 343 ; extract from, shew- 
ing that the clergy were not a caste, 351 ; an 
opinion of, refuted, 399; extract from, shew- 
ing the immense superiority of the Church 
to the barbarians in legislation, 447 ; docu- 
ments shewing his error with respect to 
Abclard, 486. 

Hacket, fanaticism of, 427. 
Harlem, Mathias, mad fanaticism of, 426. 
Heresy, held a sin by the Catholic Church, 200. 
Heretics, characteristics of those of the early 
ages, 425. 

Herman, preaches the murder of all priests 
and magistrates, 426. 

Hermanc'.ad, charter of, between the kingdoms 
. of Leon and Castile, for the preservation of 
their liberties, 475. 

History, difficulties in its study, 24S ; necessi- 
ty of taking into account times and circum- 
stances of events therein, 248. 

Hobbes, his false theory of society, 304; his 
servile doctrine, 323. 

Honor, principle of, in monarchies, according 
to Montesquieu, 161. 

Horace, on the origin of society, 462. 

Hospitals, destroyed by Henry VIII. in Eng- 
land, 185; Catholic bishops the protectors 
and inspectors of, 187 ; laws made respecting 
them by the Church, 187 ; attached to mon- 
asteries and colleges in the middle ages, 449 ; 
superintended by the bishops, 449 ; their 
property protected by being considered as 
belonging to the Church, 449. 

Hugh of St. Victor, historical labors of, 241. 

Humility, its effects with regard to toleration, 
193. 

Ideas, irreligious ones cannot be confined to 
theory, but enter on the field of practice, 70; 
destroy themselves, 71 ; power of, 169 ; they 
are divided into those that flatter the pas- 
sions, and those that check them, 170 ; they 
require an institution to preserve and en- 
force them, 170 ; how they became corrupted 
among mankind before Christianity, 170; 
how effected by the press, 171 ; their natural 
progress, 171 ; their rapid succession in mo- 
dern times, 171. 

Impiety allies itself with liberty or despotism 
to suit its purpose, 3S8. 

Incredulity in Europe the fruit of Protes- 
tantism, 60; spirit of, has lost much of its 
strength, 70. 



INDEX. 



497 



Independence, personal, feeling* of, existed 
among - the Greeks and Romans, 124. 

Indifference, religious, in Europe, the fruit of 
Protestantism, 60. 

Individual, the, how absorhed by the state 
among the ancients, 127 ; fatal effects of the 
complete annihilation of the feelings of re- 
spect for, in society, 129; witnessed among 
nations not Christians, 129. 

Individuals, how the freedom of, was fettered 
among the ancient republics, 130; every 
thing ruled by the state, 130. 

Inquisition, the, misrepresentations with re- 

f ard to that of Spain, 203 ; its duration may 
e divided into three periods, 205; appeals 
from it to Rome, 207; indulgence of the lat- 
ter, 203; interference of the Popes to soft- 
en the rigours of, 203; mildness of that of 
Rome, 203; no case of capital sentence pro- 
nounced by it, 203; rigours of that of Spain 
in the time of Philip ft. caused by the Pro- 
testants themselves, 214; compels a preacher 
to retract who, in the presence of Pnilip II., 
had maintained that kings have absolute 
power over their subjects, 218 ; became mild- 
er with the spirit of the age, 218 ; remarks 
thereon, 452; appellants to Rome from, for- 
bidden to return to Spain under pain of 
death by pragmatic sanction of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, 454 ; how affected by the poli- 
cy of the Spanish kings, 455; the latter ear- 
nestly endeavoured to have the judgment in 
Spain made final, without appeal, which the 
Popes refused, 455; affected impartiality of 
writers with regard to it, 455. See Perez, 
Puigblanch, Villanucva, Llorenle, and Jomtob. 
Institutions, religious, opposed by Protestant- 
ism and philosophers, 219; their importance 
and connexion with religion herself, 221 ; 
have survived the attempts made to destroy 
them, 221 ; their nature described, 222; their 
object, 222 ; are perfectly conformable to the 
spirit of the Christian religion, 223 ; their 
commencement, according to Cassian, 223 ; 
have always existed in the Church from the 
time of Constantino, 223 ; conduct of the 
Popes towards them, 224; their accordance 
with the Gospel precepts, 225; their effects 
on the human mind, 226; their services and 
necessity, 227 ; their necessity for the salva- 
tion of society, 275; not inconsistent with 
the improvements of modern times, 280; 
historical view of them, 453 ; coup d'ceil at 
their origin and development, 458-9. 
Institutions, free, injured by Protestantism, 
363. 

Institutions, their study, 243 ; necessity of un- 
derstanding the times when they existed, 
248. 

Intellect, the, its development, how affeeted 
by Catholicity, 392 ; influence thereof upon, 
historically examined, 393 ; its relations 
with religion, 404; its development among 
the nations of Europe different from that of 
those of antiquity, 405; causes that have 
hastened its development in Europe, 405; 
origin of the spirit of subtlety, 406 ; service 
rendered to it by the Church in opposing the 
subtleties of the innovators, 403 ; its progress 
from the eleventh century to our times, 412 ; 
different phases, 412. 

Intolerance, that of some irreligious men, 194 ; 
of the Romans, 196; of the pagan emperors, 
196; has continued from the "establishment 
of Christianity by the state, in various forms, 
63 



down to the present time, 196; recent in- 
stances of it, 196 ; case of France examined, 
197 ; doctrine which condemns all intoler- 
ance with regard to doctrines and actions 
discussed and refuted, 198; consequences 
which would flow from it, 198; would pro- 
duce impunity for crimes, 198; civil and 
religious, distinguished, 450; mistaken by 
Rousseau , 450 ; its existence in ancient and 
modern times held by some Protestants, 451. 

Ir religion, spirit of, has lost much of its 
strength, 70. 

Isabella, part taken by, in the establishment 
of the Inquisition in Spain, 205. 

Jansenists, the, described, 62. 

Jerome, St., on the name Catholic not being 
given to heretics, 422. 

Jesuits, importance of, in the history of civil- 
ization, 268; their eminent services, 269; 
error and contradiction of M. Guizot in 
their regard, 270; false charges against, 
271. 

Jews, the slaves of, protected by decrees of 
Councils, 107 ; struggle between truth and 
error among, 170 ; how the truth was pre- 
served, 170; their avarice, 206 ; popular ha- 
tred against, 206 ; atrocities charged against 
them by the people, 207 ; pragmatic sanction 
of Ferdinand and Isabella with regard to, 
454; law of Philip II. against, 455. 

John de Ste. Marie, extracts from, on Chris- 
tian politics, 463. 

Jomtob, Nathaniel, his work called The Inqui- 
sition Unveiled, 456; his prejudice and vul- 
gar abuse, 456. 

Judaisers pursued by the Inquisition, 209. 

Justin, on martyrdom, 132 ; his Apology, 286. 

Justinian gives bishops the control of hospi- 
tals, 450. 

Kings, inviolability of, 337 ; greatest increase 
of the power of, in Europe, dates from the 
appearance of Protestantism, 363. 

Knowledge, state of, when Christianity ap- 
peared, 85 ; sterility of, in creating" social 
institutions, 85. 

Laborers, protected by the Council of Rheims, 
182. 

Lacordaire (l'Abbe) on the Spanish Inquisi- 
tion, 210. 

Lamennais (l'Abbe), his attempt to ally 
Catholicity with extreme democracy, 131 ; 
his doctrines on government compared with 
those of St. Thomas, 338. 

Las Casas, exertions of, in favor of the native 
Americans related by Robertson, 442. 

Lateran, general Council of, confims the truce 
of God, 181 ; eleventh general Council of, 
forbids the maltreatment of monks, clergy, 
pilgrims, merchants, peasants, and the ship- 
wrecked, 182. 

Law, the divine, false interpretation of, 284; 
St. John Chrysostom on, 285; according to 
Bellarmine, 291.— See St. Thomas, SuareZ, 
Gotti, Busenbaum, Li^uori, Billuart, and the 
Compendium Salmaticense. 

Law. — See St. Thomas. 

League, the Hanseatic, described, 354. 

Legislation, that of Rome described, 86; was 
probably influenced by Christianity, 86. 

Leibnitz, his negotiations with Bossuet to re- 
unite the Churches, 61 ; his theological^ system 
contains the chief dogmas of Catholicity, 424. 



498 



INDEX. 



Lepers, ordered to be maintained at the ex- 
pense of the Church, 187. 

Lerida, Council of, excludes those at variance 
from the body and blood of Christ, 176 ; de- 
crees seven years' penance against infanti- 
cide, 184. 

Leyden, John of, his excesses at Munster, 
426. 

Liberty, a word ill understood, 79; examples 
of, 79 ; how limited, 79 ; Catholicity favora- 
ble to its true spirit, SO ; true nature of, 228 ; 
according to Catholic doctors, 311 ; political 
freedom owes nothing to Protestantism, 352 ; 
Catholicity favorable to it, 352 ; why it has 
fallen into bad repute with some, 362 ; con- 
sidered in relation to religious intolerance, 
3S2 ; cannot subsist without morality, 339 ; 
remarkable passage from Augustin on the 
subject, 390. 

Lillebonne, Council of, enforces the truce of 
God, 180. 

Llandaff, Council of, 177. 

Llorente, his History of the Inquisition, 457 ; 

his attempt to introduce schism and heresy 

into Spain, 457 ; his misrepresentation, 457 ; 

burns a portion of the documents belonging 

to the Inquisition of Madrid, 457. 
London, Council of, 106. 

Louis of Bavaria, the doctrine that the impe- 
rial power comes immediately from God 
maintained by the princes of the empire in 
his time, 462. 

Love, passion of, its effects, 143 ; how treated 
by Catholicity and Protestantism, 144 ; ad- 
vantages of the course pursued by the for- 
mer, 145. 

Luther, his opinion on polygamy, 138 ; effects 
which his doctrines would have had, had 
they been proclaimed sooner, 138; his intol- I 
erance towards the Jews, 209; specimens 
of his violence, grossness, and intolerance, 
421 ; his evidence against Catholicity, 423 ; 
his interview with the Devil, 425 ; infidel 1 
passages from his writings, 428. 

Lyons, Council of, 105 ; Council of, see Lepers; 
poor men of, described, 251. 

Macon, Councils of, 104. 

Manichees, unusual severities exercised to- 
wards, 204 ; description of, 252. 

Manners, gentleness of, one of the character- j 
istics of European civilization, 172; wherein 
it consists, 172 ; exists in advanced societies, j 
172 ; not found in young nations, 172 ; did 
not exist among the Greeks and Romans, j 
173 ; causes of this, 173 ; their excessive cor 
ruption among the ancients, 445. 

Mariana, his popular doctrines, 312; on the 
liberties of Spain, 481. 

Marquez, P., on the disputes between rulers 
ana their subjects, 482 ; on the levying of 
taxes, and the right of rulers over the pro- 
perty of their subjects, 4S3. 

Marriage, doctrines of Catholicity and Protes- : 
tantism with regard to, compared, 136; im- 
portance of guarding the sanctity of, 139; i 
not admitted as a sacrament by Protestant- 
ism, 139; different conduct of Catholicity 
and Protestantism with regard to, 140. 

Martyrs, heroism of the Christian, 132. 

Matha, John of, one of the founders of the Or- 
der of the most holy Trinity for the Redemp- 
tion of Captives, 259. 

Mathematics, obscurity of their first principles, 
425. 



Melancthon, his complaints against the other 

Reformers, 421 ; superstitions of, 426. 
Merchants protected by Councils, 182. 
Merida, Council of, 100. 

Missions, their unity broken by Protestantism, 
260 ; injury thereby done to them, 263 ; what 
they might have effected had it not appeared, 
263 ; what united efforts effected in earlier 
times, 264 ; need of, on a large scale, for the 
conversion of the heathen , 265 ; zeal dis- 
played by the Church in the promotion of, 
in latter times, 266 ; powerful means for pro- 
moting at the command of Rome before 
unity was broken, 266. 

Monarchy, why hereditary is preferable, 143; 
idea formed of, in the sixteenth century, 
346 ; application thereof, 347 ; in what it dif- 
fered from despotism, 347; what it was in 
the sixteenth century, 347 ; its relations with 
the Church, 348 ; when necessary in Europe, 
356 ; different character of, in Europe and 
Asia, 357 ; passage from De Maistre on, 358 ; 
institutions for limiting it, 358 ; it acquired 
strength in the sixteenth century, 361 ; pre- 
vailed over free institutions, 362 ; causes of 
this, 370. 

Monasteries, those in the east established in 
imitation of the solitaries, 235 ; causes of 
their decline, 235 ; services they might have 
rendered to literature, 236; what they did 
for knowledge, 236 ; those of the west estab- 
lished, 238 ; their effects, 23S ; property ren- 
dered sacred, 239 ; their property, 239 ; their 
claims thereto, 239; their improvements, 
240; encouragement given to the country 
life, 240 ; their services to Germany, France, 
Spain, and England, 240; great men they 
produced, 240; their services to science and 
letters, 240 ; their civilizing effects, 242 ; new 
forms assumed by them in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, 242 ; their objects, 243; 
benefits they conferred on mankind, 243. 

Monks, protected by Councils, 180. 

Monogamy not owing to climate, 138. 

Montaigne on the Reformation, 61 ; his infidel 
sentiments changed at his death, 429. 

Montanus, Arias, "employed by Philip II. to 
collect books and MSS., 218. 

Montesquieu on the principle of honor in mo- 
narchies, 162; that of virtue in republics, 
161 ; he is bound by his theory, 165; on the 
destruction of monasteries and hospitals in 
England by Henry VIII., 185 ; his doctrine 
with regard to the latter, 186. 

Montpellier, Council of, its decrees to secure 
peace, 181. 

Moors, the, dread of their power in Spain, 205 ; 
papal bull in favor of, 209; law of Philip 
III., expelling them, 454. 

Napoleon and the Spanish nation, 331 ; 
Narbonne, Council of, its decree in favor of 

the truce of God, 179. 
Nationality, importance of, 76. 
Nicholas, a fanatic who taught that it was good 

to continue in sin that grace might the more 

abound, 427. 
Nuns, protected by the Council of Rouen, 181. 

Obedience, motives of, founded on the will of 
God, 97. 

Olive trees, why protected by the Council of 

Narbonne, 180. 
Opinions, the rapid succession of, in modern 

times, 171. 



I N D 

Opinion, public, influence of, on morals, 163. 
Orange, Council of, its decree in favor of 
slaves, 103. 

Orders, the religious- military described, 242; 
the mendicant ditto, 252 ; the necessity for 
the latter, 253 ; their popular nature, 254 ; 
their influence, 254 ; were the work of God, 
254; their relations with the Pontiffs, 256; 
those for the redemption of captives, 257; 
visions inspiring them, 259 ; their founders, 
259. 

Orleans, Council of, its decree in favor of slaves, 
100, 103, 107 ; forbids any one to be armed 
at church, 176; protects hospitals, 187; the 
poor and prisoners, 187. 

Oxford, Council of, its decree against robbers, 
182. 

Pacts, 298. 

Paganism described by St. Augustin, 89. 
Palafox, on the duties of kings, princes, and 

magistrates, 321 ; on taxes and tyranny, 483. 
Palentia, Council of, protects the defenceless, 

182. 

Papin, evidence of, in favor of Catholicity, 424. 

Paris, trades-union of, 354. 

Passions, the, differently treated by Catholici- 
ty and by Protestantism, 140 ; why so active 
in times of public disturbance, 143. 

Patrick, (St.), Council of, 105. 

Paul, (St.), his Epistle to the Romans, 459. 

Peasants. — See Later an. 

Penance, efficacy of the sacrament of, 167. 

Perez, on the condemnation of a preacher for 
absolutist doctrines by the Inquisition of 
Spain, 455. 

Peter, (St. ) , of Arbues, his murder by the Jews 
not a proof of the unpopularity of the Inqui- 
sition, 207 ; tumult occasioned thereby, 207. 

Peter, (St.), Nolasque, founds the Order of 
Mercy for the Redemption of Captives, 259. 

Philanthropy, inadequate for works of benefi- 
cence without Christian Charity, 189. 

Philosophers, the irreligions of the last century 
preferred pagan to Christian institutions, 
161. 

Fhilosophy, schools of, can destroy but not 
create, 171. 

Philip II. of Spain did not institute the Inqui- 
sition, but continued it, 210 ; why so much 
attacked by Protestants, 210; probability 
that the attempts made to introduce Protes- 
tantism into Spain in his time would suc- 
ceed, owing to the circumstances of the 
times, 211; his conduct to Carranza, 213; 
his services to Catholicity, 215; general feel- 
ing in his reign with regard to cruel punish- 
ments very different from the present, 217 ; 
his patronage of literature, 218 ; his letter to 
Arias Montanus, 456. — See Inquisition. 

Pilgrims protected by Councils, 181. 

Pitt, anecdote of, 76. 

Pius II. (Pope), his apostolic letters against 

slavery, 439. 
Pius VII. ( Pope) , interposes to abolish the slave 

trade, 441. 
Plato, immoral doctrines of, 422. 
Polygamy, not the effect of climate, 138. 
Poor, the, regulations of Councils in favor of, 

187. 

Popes, the, services they rendered to society 
by preserving the sanctity of marriage, 137 ; 
support the truce of God, 181 ; their attempts 
to mitigate the rigour of the Spanish Inqui- 
sition, 208 ; appoint judges of appeal, 208 ; 



ex. 499 

their intolerance compared with the toler- 
ance of Protestantism, 208 ; their temporal 
powers, 340 ; doctrines of theologians with 
regard to them in case they should fall into 
heresy, 342; nature, origin, and effects of 
their temporal power, 386; list of titles given 
to, in ancient times, 423. 
Power, origin of, 284; the paternal, considered 
with regard to the civil, 286 ; the latter, ac- 
cording to Bellarmine, resides immediately 
in the people, 292; divine origin of, 298; 
violence of, when illegitimate, 303 ; mediate 
and immediate transmission of, 305 ; this dis- 
tinction important in some respects and un- 
important in others, 306; why Catholic di- 
vines have so zealously supported the mediate, 
308; faculties of the civil, 317; calumnies 
of the opponents of the Church on this point, 
317 ; resistance to the civil, 324 ; comparison 
between Catholicity and Protestantism on 
this point, 327 ; vain timidity of some minds 
on this point, 324; obedience to the civil, 
taught by Catholicity when legitimate, 325; 
civil distinguished from spiritual, 326; con- 
duct of Catholicity and Protestantism with 
respect to the separation of the two, 326; the 
independence of the spiritual, a guarantee 
for the liberty of the people, 326 ; doctrines 
of St. Thomas on obedience to the civil, 328; 
doctrines of St. Thomas, Bellarmine, Suarez, 
&c. on resistance to the civil, in extreme 
cases, 338. 

Preaching, that of Protestantism without au- 
thority, 167. — See Protestantism. 

Prebendaries, bound to give a tenth of their 
fruits to an hospital, 188. 

Press, the effects of, on opinions, 171. 

Prisoners, exertions of the Church in favor of, 
187. 

Protestantism, present condition of, 64; at- 
tempts to preserve itself by violating its fun- 
damental principle, 64 ; causes of its conti- 
nuance, 64; has almost entirely disappeared 
as a fixed creed, but remains as a body of 
sects, 65; its positive doctrines repugnant to 
the instinct of civilization, 68 ; its essential 
principle one of destruction, 69; can boast 
only of its ruins, 69; was the work of human 
passions, and not of God, 69; effects which 
even its partial introduction into Spain would 
produce, 74, 76, 78 ; advantages of the prac- 
tice of preaching preserved by, 90, 166 ; its 
preaching is without authority, 167 ; its doc- 
trine with respect to errors of the mind, 199; 
effects which its introduction into Spain 
would have produced, 216; would have bro- 
ken the unity of the Spanish monarchy, 216; 
is opposed to vows and celibacy, 219; its ap- 
pearance, 262; its effects in breaking the 
unity of European civilization, 262; divided 
the missionaries among themselves, 263 ; dis- 
astrous effects of, 267 ; exalts the temporal 
power at the expense of the spiritual, 308; 
its relations with liberty, 343 ; real state of 
the case on this point, 344; its origin aristo- 
cratic, 355 ; not favorable to the poor, 355 ; 
has contributed to destroy free institutions, 
363 ; fearful state of Europe after it appeared, 
369; political doctrines prevailing in Europe 
before its appearance compared with those 
of modern publicists and the school of the 
eighteenth century, 374 ; has prevented the 
homogeneity of European civilization, 375; 
historical proofs, 376; compared with Catho- 
licity with regard to learning, criticism, the 



500 



INDEX 



learned languages, the foundation of univer- 
sities, the progress of literature and the arts, 
mysticism, high philosophy, metaphysics, 
morals, religious philosophy, and the philo- 
sophy of history, 412; evidences against, 
from Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Beza, 
Grotius, Papin, Puffendorf, and Leibnitz, 
423; its superstition and fanaticism, 425; 
bad faith of its founders, 428; passages prov- 
ing this, 428; progress of infidelity soon 
after its appearance proved from Luther, 
Brentzen, Gruet, and Montaigne, 428. 

Puffendorf, his false theory of society, 304; 
evidence of, against Protestantism, 423. 

Puigblanch.— See Jomtob. 

Punishments, right of inflicting capital, deriv- 
ed from God, 300; cannot come from pacts, 
300; mildness of, among barbarian nations 
not a proof of civilization but of indifference 
to crime, 447 ; immense superiority of the 
legislation of the Church with respect to, ac- 
cording to M. Guizot, 447. 

Regulus, virtue bordering on ferocity, 104. 

Religion, always existed in some shape among 
the greater part of mankind, 66 ; power of, 
in Spain, 76; condition of, when Christianity 
appeared, 84; atrocities committed in the 
name of, by Catholics and Protestants, 204 ; 
importance of, to the civil power, 311 ; cor- 
ruption of, among the ancients, 445. 

Revolutions, those of modern times, 389 ; dif- 
ference between that of the United States of 
America and that of France, 389. 

Rhcims, Councils of, 104; commands that the 
clergy, monks, women, travellers, laborers, 
and vine-dressers shall be respected during 
war, 182 ; protects the poor, 187. 

Robertson. — See Dominicans and Las Casas. 

Romans, the, their savage heroism not tolerat- 
ed by the mild spirit of Christianity, 104 ; 
futile attempts made to imitate them, 128; 
their manners effeminate without being gen- 
tle, 173. 

Rome, legislation of, 86; how affected by 
•Christianity, 86 ; vice of her political organ- 
ization^?; Council of, its decrees in favor 
•of slaves, 109 ; the court of, endeavors to 
mitigate the severity of the Spanish Inqui- 
sition, 208; mildness of the Inquisition at 
Rome compared with that in other places, 
208 ; no instance of a capital sentence hav- 
ing been pronounced thereby, 208 ; the de- 
cline and fall of the empire of, 229. 

Roscelin described, 400; compared with St. 
Anselm, 407. 

Rouen, Council of, its decree in favor of the 
truce of God, 181. 

Rousseau, doctrines of, 282 ; his appeal to the 
passions, 288 ; his Contrat Social, 299 ; his 
misrepresentation of Catholicity, 450; doc- 
trines of his Contrat Social, 451 ; his intoler- 
ance, 451. 

"Saavedra, his popular doctrines, 313. 
Salamanca, Compendium of, on the transmis- 
sion of power by the people's consent, 295. 
Sciences, the natural and social compared, 85. 
Scipio, story of, 165. 

Self-defence, right of, alleged as a plea for the 
intolerance of governments, 202. 

Seneca, on the worship of the gods, 316. 

Sigebert, historical labors of, 241. 

Slaves, their large numbers among the an- 
cients, 91 ; their numbers at Athens, Sparta, 



Rome, and in the eastern countries, 91 ; 
opinions of Plato and Aristotle regaruing 
them, 91 ; their treatment, 91 ; dangers from 
their numbers, 91 ; their rebellions, 92; their 
immediate emancipation impracticable, 93 ; 
the Church did all that could be done in their 
favor, 94; difficulties she had to contend 
with in their emancipation, 94: conduct, de- 
signs, and tendencies of the Church favora- 
ble to them, 94; their natural inferiority to 
freemen proclaimed by the heathen philoso- 
phers, 95; their natural equality with them 
inculcated by the Scriptures and the Church, 
97? motives for their obedience, 97; their ill- 
treatment, 98 ; spirit of hatred and revolts 
thereby caused, 98; St. Paul's instructions 
to them, 98 ; power of life and death possess- 
ed over them by their masters, and cruelties 
exercised, 99; scene from Tacitus, 99; St. 
Paul intercedes for one of them, 100; ill- 
treatment of them forbidden by Councils of 
the Church, 100; she substitutes public trial 
for private vengeance in their regard, 101 ; 
the clergy forbidden to mutilate them, 101 ; 
she condemns to penance those who put them 
to death of their own authority, 101 : she 
protects those newly emancipated, 103; those 
of the Church not allowed to be sold or ex- 
changed, 109; those who embrace the mon- 
astic state are freed by decree of the Council 
of Rome, 109; abuse thereof, 109; were rais- 
ed to the priesthood, but not until they had 
been freed, 110; prevalence of the abuse of 
ordaining slaves without the consent of their 
masters,"! 10; the Church protects their mar- 
riages, and forbids them to be dissolved by 
their masters, 113. — See Councils. 

Slavery, the offspring of sin, 112. 

Society, will always be either religious or su- 
perstitious, 67 ; modern, described, 72 ; its 
progress, 82 ; condition of, when Christianity 
appeared, 84 ; present state of, 274; admin- 
istration alone not adequate to its wants; 
principle of charity required, 276 ; physical 
means of restraining the masses of, 278; 
moral means required, 280 ; origin of, ac- 
cording to St. Thomas; 289; not the work 
of man, 291 ; not to be saved by strict polit- 
ical doctrines, without religion and moral- 
ity, 314; why modern conservative schools 
are powerless in preserving it, 315 ; struggle 
therein between the three elements, monar- 
chy, aristocracy, and democracy, 369. 

Solitaries, the early, described, 231 ; numbers 
of, 231 ; influence of, in spiritualising ideas 
and improving morals, 232 ; overcome the 
difficulties of the luxurious and enervating 
climate, 234 ; great men who received their 
inspirations from them, 234. 

Spain, effects which the partial introduction of 
Protestantism would have produced there, 
74, 76, 77 ; power of religious ideas there, 76; 
peculiar manner in which revolutionary 
ideas have come into operation there, 77 ; 
has not yet obtained the government which 
she requires, 7S ; effects of the loss of her 
national unity, 78 ; her intolerance in reli- 
gious matters not so great as it has been re- 
presented, 218; bold" language used there 
with regard to politics, 312; industrial pro- 
gress therein, 354 ; Catholicity and politics 
there, 377; real state of the question, 377; 
causes of the ruin of her free institutions, 
378; ancient and modern freedom, 378; 
Communeros of Castile, 379; policy of her 



INDEX 



501 



rulers, 380; Ferdinand, Ximenes, Charles 
V., and Philip II. 381. 

Stephen, CAbbot), his account of the excesses 
committed by the Manichees in France, 252. 

Suarez, on the origin of power, 294; his reply to 
King- James I. of England, 294 ; on the dis- 
putes between subjects and their rulers, 473. 

Subtlety, spirit of, in the middle ages, its 
causes, 406. 

Tacitus, scene from, of cruelty to slaves, 99 ; 
on the ancient Germans with regard to wo- 
men, 152; his description of their manners, 
why embellished, 152. 

Tact, value of, 171. 

Tancheme, excesses of, 250. 

Telugis, Council of, ordains the truce of God, 
180. 

Tertullian, apology of, 286. 

Theodosious, the emperor, excluded from the 

Church by St. Ambrose, for the slaughter at 

Thessalonica, 178. 
Theories, rapid succession of, in modern times, 

171. 

Theresa, St., extracts from the visions of, 427. 

Thierry, M., his history of the Conquest of 
England by the Normans, 120. 

Thomas, St., of Aquin, extract from, on the 
origin of society, 289 ; on the Divine law, 
290; his definition of law, 319; his doctrines 
with regard to laws and royal power, 319; 
on obedience to laws, 328 ; utility of his dic- 
tatorship in the schools in the middle ages 
to the human mind, 411 ; passages from, on 
the duties of rulers and subjects, 470; his 
doctrines on the forms of government, 480. 

Times, superiority of the primitive, has been 
exaggerated, 422. 

Toledo, Councils of, 103, 107, 108, 111. 

Toleration, how misunderstood and misrepre- 
sented, 190; prejudices against Catholicity 
with regard to, 190; principle of, considered., 
191 ; in religious men is the produce of two 
principles, charity and humility, 191 ; illus- 
trations, shewing how they are affected by 
intercourse with the world on this point, 192 ; 
that of some irreligious men, 194; consider- 
ed in society and governments, 194; its ex- 
istence in society not owing to the philoso- 
phers, 195; its causes, 195; principle of uni- 
versal, discussed, 196. 

Tours, Council of, ordains that the poor shall be 
supported in their own town or parish, 187. 

Trades-corporations, origin and salutary ef- 
fects of, 477. 

Trades-union. — See Paris. 

Trajan, the emperor, 6000 gladiators slain at 
his games, 174. 

Transubstantiation, discussion with regard to, 
in consequence of the philosophy of Des- 
cartes, 397. 



Trent, Council of, gives bishops the power of 

visiting hospitals, 449. 
Troja, Councils of, promote the truce of God, 

180. 

Truce of God described, 179; established by 
Church Councils, 179 ; supported by Popes, 
180. 

Truth, described, 69. 

Tubuza, Council of, establishes the truce of 
God, 179. 

Unbelievers, doctrines of, with regard to er- 
rors of the mind, 200. 
Universities, those founded by Catholicity, 414. 

Vaison, Council of, decree of, in favor of found- 
lings and against infanticide, 184. 

Valois, Felix of, one of the founders of the 
Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the Re- 
demption of Captives, 259. 

Vaudois, described, 252. 

Verneul, Council of, 105. 

Villanueva, prejudice and egotism of, 457. 

Vine-dressers, protected by the Council of 
Rheims, 182. 

Virginity, respected by the ancients, &c, but 
not by Protestantism, 146; how important 
that it should be respected, 146; not inju- 
rious to the state, 147; its effects on the fe- 
male character, 149. 

Visions, (see Orders); effects of, 259; those of 
Catholics, 427. 

Vives, Louis, on human knowledge, 424. 

Voltaire described, 63; extract from, on the 
importance of the morals of courts to socie- 
ty, 137. 

Vows, vindication of religious, 228 ; those of 
chastity in the early ages of the Church, 458. 

Widows, their vows of chastity in the early 
ages of the Church, 458. 

Witmar, a German monk, his chronicles much 
esteemed 241 ; used by Leibnitz, 241. 

Women, degraded condition of, among the 
ancients, 136, 441 ; their elevation due en- 
tirely to Catholicity, 136, 156; how affected 
by chivalry, 150 ; their elevation falsely as- 
cribed to the ancient Germans, 151 ; pro- 
tected by Councils, 182. 

Worms, Council of, excommunicates those 
who refuse to be reconciled, 177. 

Zeeallos, P.. on Christian politics and Na- 

both's vineyard, 467. 
Ziegler, a Lutheran, an ardent defender of 

the immediate communication of temporal 

power, 463. 
Zonarus, on charitable establishments, 187. 
Zuinglius, his phantom, 426. 



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